


Great Spiders Think Alike

by Princess_Unattainable



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz, Spider-Man (All Media Types)
Genre: Angst, Cute, Fluff, Heroes, Idiots in Love, M/M, Meme, Mutual Pining, They’re both spider man, boyf riends - Freeform, love square dynamics, spiderman - Freeform, they’re both stupid spider bois, this is literally based on that meme with two spider men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-07-24 01:19:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16170671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Princess_Unattainable/pseuds/Princess_Unattainable
Summary: “What do you mean you’re Spider-Man? I’M Spider-Man!”“No I’m Spider-Man!”“No I am!”“Well I’m the cooler Spider-Man!”Jeremy and Michael didn’t think their lives could get any weirder after the Squip. They realized they were wrong when they got bitten by radioactive spiders.





	1. Freaky Spider Bites

**Author's Note:**

> Wanted to start off by saying this work is inspired by both ApocalypseOfTheFucked‘s Spider Jeremy fic and _arieryn’s Spider Michael art on instagram. I’ll link both at the end, please check them out!
> 
> Other inspirations include: miraculous ladybug (there’s eventually some love square dynamics lmao) 
> 
> And mainly that one meme of two Spider-Men pointing at each other. I literally sent that to some of my friends and said “AU where Michael and Jeremy are both Spider-Man and it’s literally just this meme.” But then I couldn’t stop thinking about it and I had so many ideas for it even though it was supposed to be a JOKE. Funny how my brain works lol. 
> 
> I wrote a few chapters for this so far, the first one is pretty slow. I’m trying to get through a bunch of establishing stuff in the first few chapters so I can get to the parts I’m really excited to write!!

_Spider man was a fictional character. Radioactive spiders weren’t real. This could not be happening._ At least that was what Jeremy thought as he stared in shock at the web he had accidentally shot from his wrist. Granted he should probably be more willing to believe in stuff like this considering the evil tic-tac supercomputer he had swallowed just a few months ago. He thought surviving the squip would prepare him for anything.

He was wrong.

It all started earlier that day when he had been at play rehearsal, going over lines with his now ex girlfriend Christine.

Don’t get him wrong, Jeremy really liked Christine, she was an amazing person. But after a few dates they just realized that they worked well as friends and not a couple. Christine didn’t know what she wanted out of a relationship. And Jeremy, he thought he knew what he wanted but once he had it well, he wanted something else.

He didn’t realize it until he was in the hospital and saw Michael’s smiling face explaining why the Squips were defeated. That’s when Jeremy started to feel the warmth growing in the pit of his stomach that grew more every time he looked at his best friend’s smiling face. Why hadn’t he seen it before? Michael was warm, kind, funny, smart, beautiful, loyal, wonderful and just everything Jeremy could ever want. He hadn’t acted on these feelings of course, and he tried to ignore them especially when he was dating Christine. But he couldn’t ignore the way Michael made him feel. Michael had stayed with him through everything, he’d saved him even when Jeremy shut him out. Michael was Jeremy’s hero...and now his crush.

Back to play rehearsal. They were putting on Macbeth, well a version where the whole play takes place in outer space, Mr. Reyes thought it would really draw people in.

 _“Kids like space right?” Mr. Reyes asked Jeremy and Christine one day_  
_“Uh I guess so?” Jeremy responded._  
_And that’s how Macbeth in Space was born._

Jeremy had been running lines with Christine in the prop closet while Mr. Reyes worked with other actors on stage. Jeremy was playing a few of the minor characters and Christine was of course playing Lady MacBeth.

“Ok so Act 1 Scene 5.” Christine said flipping through her script. “Ok it starts off with one of my long monologues then you come in on the next page right?”

“Yeah.” Jeremy replied not really paying attention. He was too distracted by Michael fussing with a stage light. Christine launched into her monologue while Jeremy turned all of his attention to Michael who was working on a stage light.

Jeremy had practically begged Michael to sign up for the play with the rest of their squad. After a lot of coaxing (mainly just Jeremy promising several slushies) Michael finally agreed but only if he could do tech. So Michael was the show’s only techie. Mr. Reyes would be helping him during the performances, unless of course he needed to understudy someone. Michael was fine with it since there wasn’t a lot of tech involved with this show, seeing as how it was a barely funded high school production, they went with a minimalist look.

Jeremy adored how Michael’s face scrunched up when he was super focused on something. He just loved watching Michael operate, fixing the light like he fixed so many of Jeremy’s problems. Michael always knew just what to do to make Jeremy feel better, constantly making him laugh and feel warm and fuzzy. Jeremy watched as Michael unscrewed a panel on the stage light, sticking his tongue out slightly a he focused. That made Jeremy’s mind wander to Michael’s mouth, what it might be like to kiss him, to feel that tongue inside his mouth-

“Jeremy!” Christine called to him snapping her fingers in front of his face.

“Uh wha?” Jeremy responded flustered as he turned his attention back to his scene partner.

“It’s your line. I called your name a few times but you didn’t respond. Is everything ok?” Christine looked at him with concern.

Jeremy’s face heated up as embarrassment over took him. How was he supposed to respond? _Everything’s fine I was just thinking about making out with my best friend of twelve years no big deal!_ He took a breath before responding.

“Uh yeah I just Uh ya know got a lot of voices in my head heheh.” He sputtered out red faced.

Christine pursed her lips for a few seconds staring at him debating whether or not to let it go.

“Alright. Just try to focus on the script.” She decided to just keep practicing, they really needed to start memorizing anyway. She could find out what Jeremy was hiding later.

Jeremy held back a sigh of relief. “Will do!” He said as he brought his script closer to his face. He’d gotten through his first line with no problem but just as he started saying his next line something happened.

“So please you, It is true: our thane is com- OW what the hell?” Jeremy suddenly felt a sharp pain in his neck. He started reaching towards his neck when Christine suddenly grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“Don’t move.” She said in a very serious tone with a grave expression on her face. Jeremy shuddered and obeyed. Then watched nervously as Christine slowly reached into a prop box behind her grabbing a rolled up newspaper. She carefully stood up and locked eyes with her target then swung hard very suddenly at Jeremy’s neck. Jeremy screamed.

“Christine what the fuck?!” Jeremy sprung up from where he’d been sitting exasperatedly trying to dodge another swing.

“Jeremy hold still! There’s a huge spider on your neck!” Christine yelled.

“WHAT?! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!” Jeremy panicked his arms shaking in front of him.

“I’m trying but you have to stand still!”

Jeremy closed his eyes and clenched his fists standing as still as he could as Christine swung at his neck again with the newspaper. Then she swung a few more times whacking the newspaper against Jeremy’s neck, he cringed each time he heard the paper hit. After about seven whacks, Christine finally announced that she got it. She looked towards the ground intending to finish off the spider but couldn’t find it.

“That’s weird. It’s not there, that thing was huge and BLUE how could it just disappear?” She looked around confused trying to find the gigantic beast that had just assaulted her friend’s neck.

“I don’t care! I’m never going back in the closet again!” Jeremy announced as he turned to exit the closet but then stopped when he realized all of their friends were staring at him holding back laughter. Jeremy turned beet red as they all burst out laughing.

“Uhh I- when- why?” Jeremy stuttered trying and failing to regain his composure.

“Mr. Reyes took a hot pocket break.” Chloe informed him. “But right after he left the real show began”

“Sorry.” Rich said through giggles “but I gotta make this joke, Jeremy you’re finally out of the closet!”

Jeremy felt his blush increase, technically he’d come out about a month ago as bisexual. All of his friends had been overwhelmingly supportive but the joke still made him a tad uncomfortable, especially when the boy who made him realize his sexuality was about five feet away laughing.

“Sorry Jer.” Said crush spoke up through laughter, Jeremy felt his whole body get even hotter. He sweat as Michael continued. “We really don’t mean to laugh AT you it’s just really funny to see someone freak out that bad over a spider ya know?”

“To be fair, it was a massive spider.” Christine said coming to Jeremy’s defense.

“I definitely would have freaked too.” Brooke added smiling “but it’s just really funny when it happens to someone else.”

The group nodded in agreement all except Jeremy and Christine. Jeremy literally wanted to sink into the floorboards.

“Relax man we’re just teasing.” Jake commented noticing Jeremy’s expression. He punched Jeremy’s arm lightly. “We’d laugh the same no matter which one of us it was.”

“Gee thanks. Makes me feel so much better.” Jeremy said sarcastically rolling his eyes.

“Come on Jer it’s all right.” Michael said as he stepped forward and wrapped his arm around Jeremy’s shoulder and rubbed his arm up and down. Jeremy surprised a shudder. “they’re just joking around no biggie.” Michael smiled at him and Jeremy all but melted. Michael always knew how to calm him down. Although he was calmer, Jeremy’s cheeks still burned.

He was still mortified that Michael had seen his little freak out even though he had seen much more embarrassing things Jeremy had done. He’d known him since kindergarten after all. Michael had been there when Jeremy peed his pants in first grade, when he walked face first into a sliding glass door, he’d even been there the time Jeremy had a breakdown in build a bear (they didn’t have the dinosaur he wanted). Michael had seen it all. But now that he had a crush on Michael it felt different, he was more embarrassed of himself when he was with his best friend. Jeremy got flustered around him more often and definitely blushed more, and he absolutely hated it. Michael was bound to catch on eventually but there was no way they’d ever actually date. Jeremy was lucky Michael even talked to him after the Squip incident, no need to push for anything more. Besides Jeremy thought Michael deserved so much better than someone who almost flushed their entire friendship down the drain because Keanu Reeves told him to.

“Holy shit what happened to your neck!”

Jeremy was pulled out of his self deprecating thoughts by Michael’s exclamation.

“What? What’s wrong with my-” Jeremy cut himself off as he reached up and felt a large lump on his neck. “What the fuck?” He said to himself.

“Oh dear god.” Jenna stated putting down her phone. “Jeremy, you have a spider hickey!”

The group started laughing again. Just as Jeremy was about to protest he felt his body slump forward and Michael caught him before he hit the ground. The laughter got caught in everyone’s throats.

“Woah Jeremy are you ok?” Michael asked trying to steady his best friend, concern written all over his face.

“Y-yeah.” Jeremy stuttered and felt woozy realizing how close they were “I just feel a little light headed I guess.” Jeremy tried to stand himself upright then immediately started to fall forward again. And again Michael caught him. The rest of his friends rushed to help as well. Jake grabbed onto Jeremy’s other side. The others stood in front of Jeremy with their arms out ready to catch him in case he fell forward again. A few asked if Jeremy was ok as they all looked over him with concern. Jeremy tried to respond but he could barely hear them as his ears started ringing, his vision became fuzzy and he slumped more weight onto Micheal.

“I’m gonna take him home.” Jeremy heard Michael say right before he passed out.

Jeremy woke up in his room with a start. He was covered in sweat and felt sluggish. It was dark out now. He looked over at his night stand and saw that his phone had been plugged in for him, he reached over to check the time, 11pm. He’d been out cold for seven hours. He then noticed he had a few notifications from Michael. Jeremy felt awful, he must have really worried his best friend. Just as he was about to open his texts a white sticky substance shot out of his wrist and made a perfect spider web on his wall.

Jeremy stared at it in silence contemplating when exactly his life had become a comic book.

* * *

Michael called Mr. Heere on his way to Jeremy’s house to let him know what had happened. He then called his mama to see if she could come to the Heere’s and take a look at Jeremy to find out what’s wrong. Michael’s mama Savannah was a fantastic nurse, if anyone would know what was wrong with Jeremy it’d be her. She practically ran over to Jeremy’s house as soon as Michael told her what was wrong.

Michael tried not to let the panic seep into his voice as he called the adults. Ever since the Squip Michael has been way more nervous about Jeremy. Partially because he was a lot more cautious about evil supercomputers now, and partially because he had realized his true feelings for his best friend. Michael hadn’t really noticed the way he felt about Jeremy until he almost lost him. Now he was well aware just how much he loved Jeremiah Heere.

He had tried to casually slip back into their friendship but it was different now. Pretty much everything Jeremy did made Michael’s heart do somersaults. How Jeremy snorted when he laughed, the way nervously fidgeted, when he got flustered over simple things, every part of Jeremy made Michael’s heart pound. He loved and hated the feeling because on one hand, loving Jeremy felt amazing, but on the other hand it could potentially ruin their friendship. Again. They had just started getting back to a normal life he couldn’t mess that up now. Well, normal aside from passing out at play rehearsal.

When he pulled up in front of the Heere household, both of Michael’s moms were already there talking to Mr. Heere in the driveway. All three parents practically sprinted towards the car when they noticed Michael pull up.

* * *

Savannah hummed as she brought her stethoscope to Jeremy’s heart and listened. Michael, his mom, and Mr. Heere had squished onto the living room couch as Savannah examined her patient in the recliner. After a few moments of tense anticipation she pulled her stethoscope away and turned towards her audience.

“Everything seems normal apart from the fever.” Savannah said matter of factly. Mr. Heere and Mrs. Mell sighed in relief. But Michael still had concerns.

“But what about the spider bite?” He asked nervously. He’d probably asked about the bite fifteen times by now.

“No Micah for the last time this was not caused by the bite.” His mama said soothingly despite her harsh words.

“But none of this happened until after he was bitten.” Michael protested nervously bouncing his leg and fidgeting with his hands.

“Yes but that’s purely coincidence I promise.” Savannah told him in a calm voice “if he had actually been bitten by a venomous spider he’d be..” she paused when she saw the nervous look on her son’s face “in much worse condition right now. It’s most likely just a virus. He’ll be fine in a few days.”

“Ok.” Michael said seeming to settle down before he thought of another question. “But what about the fainting? That’s not normal right?” He’d worked himself up again with worry.

“It’s ok honey. Most teenagers get very little sleep.” Savannah informed her son gently. “Lack of sleep mixed with a virus was probably just too much for Jeremy right now. But he’s ok, he just needs some rest.”

Savannah was used to panicky patients and scared family members at the hospital, she always knew just what to say and how to handle people who were overwhelmed. Especially when it was her own son.

“Maybe it was all those video games and junk food” Michael’s mom Jasmin half-heartedly joked next to him rubbing soothing circles on his back.

Michael forced a low chuckle but couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit guilty at the joke. He’d heavily encouraged the junk food and video games, he often provided both.

After a few minutes of silence, Mr. Heere piped up. “Well we should get Jeremy to bed. You’re all welcome to stay for dinner.”

Michael’s mothers agreed to stay but Michael said he needed to go on a drive to clear his head. Jasmin made him promise he’d be home by curfew and Savannah promised to save him a plate. After helping Mr. Heere put Jeremy to bed, Michael hugged everyone goodbye and walked out to his P.T. Cruiser. As soon as he was far enough away for no one to see him he pulled over and tried to steady his breathing. He felt a few tears roll down his face as he took deep breaths. He knew he was being over dramatic but he got so scared when it came to Jeremy now, always afraid he’d lose him again.

After a couple minutes of labored breathing, Michael turned on some Bob Marley and sent a few memes to Jeremy to cheer him up once he was awake. Then Michael punched it to 7-11 for a slushie pick me up.

* * *

Michael was stone faced as he entered the convenience store. Not caring about his red eyes or tear stained cheeks. He made a beeline to the slushie machine and poured himself a big gulp of cherry. As he grabbed a lid from the container he noticed a large red spider perching on it. He quickly let go of the lid watching helplessly as the spider jumped from the falling plastic onto his the back of his hand.

“Don’t you do it.” Michael thought out loud looking at the spider. He then grunted in pain as the spider bit his hand. He shook his hand around trying to get the spider off but it stuck to him. He then started to flick it with his fingers hoping the spider wouldn’t get mad and bite him a second time. This tactic worked after a few tries. But as he was about to step on his attacker Michael saw that the spider started moving at a ridiculous speed across the floor. Way faster than he’d ever seen a spider move before. Weird.

He paid for his slushie then decided to drive home. He’d wanted to drive around a bit more but he suddenly felt sluggish. When he got home he noticed that his moms weren’t home, probably still at the Heere’s having dinner. Michael tiredly walked down to the basement, put his glasses on the nightstand and flopped down on his bed falling asleep almost immediately.

When Michael woke up it was completely dark and he felt his stomach groan. He looked over at the neon light of his alarm clock. It was 4am and he’d skipped dinner, super. He reached over and turned on the lamp on his nightstand. He took his glasses and put them on, he was about to head up stairs to eat something when his head suddenly hurt and his vision was blurry. He took off his glasses to wipe them but then noticed that he could see perfectly fine without them.

“What the fuck?” He said to himself. He’d needed a strong prescription ever since he was seven years old. This was freaky. As he held up his hand to test out his vision, moving it toward and away from him, a white liquid shot out of his wrist and stuck to his ceiling mimicking a spider web.

“What the fuck?!” Michael repeated to himself as he stared up at his ceiling.


	2. The 7-11 Savior

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy wasn’t really sure what to do with his spider powers at first, like yeah they were cool but what practical application did they have? 
> 
> To Michael the answer was obvious, become Spider-Man.

Neither Jeremy or Michael told anyone about their new found abilities.

Michael really wanted to tell his moms and his best friend but he felt like he needed to find out what he was going through on his own first. He wanted more information before he told anyone, he wanted to understand what has happened to him so that when he did open up to his moms or Jeremy he could actually explain.

And Jeremy, well, Jeremy had wanted to only tell Michael but he felt that it would worry his friend unnecessarily. He had heard how worked up Michael had gotten when he fainted, springing his weird spider powers on Michael would probably be too much.

At first it was a bit difficult for them to hide things, as it took a few days for either one of them to learn to control the sticky white webs that flew out of their wrists. Thankfully, there wasn’t any major incident, both of them wore long sleeves in order contain the webbing at school. Granted they would have worn long sleeves anyway since it was January, so it’s not as if either one had to change their wardrobe. The only change Michael really had to make was removing the glass from his glasses frames, which no one seemed to notice.

Both boys had kept track of their new abilities, they could both shoot webs from their wrists, were physically stronger and had increased senses. Jeremy had enhanced hearing and Michael enhanced sight.

Michael discovered his super strength by opening the door to his house and accidentally pulling it off his hinges. Jeremy learned about his by...well, to put it frankly, he gripped his dick too hard while masterbating. Funnily enough that’s also how he figured out he has a healing factor, after screaming in agony for ten minutes.

It had taken two weeks for each one to learn to control their powers. Usually Jeremy and Michael were inseparable, but during those two weeks they hadn’t seen each other much outside of school. They were both so focused on trying to comprehend what was going of with their bodies that they’d kind of neglected their friendship. But neither one really noticed the other’s strange behavior since they were too focused on themselves.

Jeremy wasn’t really sure what to do with his spider powers at first, like yeah they were cool but what practical application did they have?

To Michael the answer was obvious, become Spider-Man. It was a nerd fantasy come true! All he had to do was disguise himself and then go stop a crime, shouldn’t be too hard right? So, one Saturday night when he felt he had a grasp on his powers, he decided it was time he became a hero. Of course he needed a disguise first, so he rummaged around for some old clothes in the back of his closet. He didn’t want to be recognized but also didn’t feel the need to go too far outside his clothing comfort zone. He doubted anyone would suspect the anti-social headphones kid would be Spider-Man.

Sure, he had more friends at school now but he highly doubted any one of them would connect the dots. They were good friends but he wasn’t too close to any of them yet, except Rich and of course Jeremy. He and Rich weren’t super close so he didn’t think the short boy would pick up on his secret. And Jeremy was completely oblivious most of the time so he was set. The only people he thought might get suspicious were his moms, and that’s because he was so close to them that he could hardly keep any secrets from them. Especially not something as big as this. Thankfully, it seemed like they hadn’t noticed any of the changes he’d gone through in the last two weeks but Michael still felt he needed to be careful around them.

Michael smiled as he opened a cardboard box labeled _Halloween Costumes_ in black sharpie. There, sitting on top of his old costumes, was a pullover Spider-Man mask, score! He tested the mask, pulling it over his head and being pleasantly surprised that it still fit. Sadly, he knew the actual costume wouldn’t fit him anymore since he’d worn it five years ago and his body had definitely grown since then, even though his head apparently hadn’t. He grabbed an old dusty black hoodie the floor of his closet, _this’ll have to do_ Michael thought as he threw it on over his grey sweatpants. He then decided to put on his light up sneakers, just in case he needed to see in the dark or something, one never knew when going after criminals. He had also decided to wear mittens having rolled up the fabric just enough to expose his web slinging wrists. He thought it’d be best to cover up his ethnicity, Michael absolutely loved being Filipino but he knew the police may take issue with a brown man performing vigilante justice. Or a brown man doing anything really.

He had started to go up the stairs when he realized that there was no way he could sneak out on the first floor with both of his moms home. So he pushed a chair against the wall, stood on it and reached for the basement window, pulling it open. He shimmied out the window and onto the grass, pumping his fist as he went off into the night looking for trouble.

Michael had driven to the woods two days ago test out if he could actually swing from his webs like Spider-Man. Thankfully he didn’t fall to his doom. Although he may have slammed into a few trees, he felt he had gained a grasp on it after a few hours of practice. So swinging through the city should be easy right? Wrong. He had tried to swing up to a street light after walking a few blocks from his house. He succeeded at getting up to the street light but wasn’t sure how much momentum he’d need to get to the next street light. The trees has been so close together so it was easier to navigate than his dimly lit suburb. He swung forward and tried to shoot out a web to the light in front of him but he missed and hit someone’s roof. He had also forgotten to tear himself off of the first web so he just dangled sadly from the street light.

He slowly lowered himself to the ground sighing in defeat, he needed more practice before he tried swinging. So he continued on foot walking towards the city looking out for potential crime. He walked all around searching for any sign of criminal activity for about two hours and saw nothing. This was New Jersey, wasn’t there supposed to be a decent amount of crime?

Just as he was taking out his phone to google what the crime rate in New Jersey actually was, he felt this weird shiver in his spine as he heard a car door slam across the street. He saw two men in black tracksuits exit a large black van with tinted windows. They both dawned masks and he noticed that one man put a gun in his pocket as he walked into the 7-11.

 _Oh hell no._ Michael thought as he ran across the street, no one was going to fuck with 7-11 on his watch. Michael burst through the doors ready to fight when he realized that the men hadn’t actually done anything yet. His entrance caused some weird looks and he sheepishly pulled his hood over his mask as he walked down an aisle. He knew he couldn’t just start swinging at the men when they hadn’t robbed the store yet or he’d be the one getting arrested, so he stood in the chip aisle and waited. He looked over to the next aisle and saw the two masked men heatedly discussing something, one was bald and the other had hair peeking out from under his ski mask that went down to his shoulders. He got a closer look at their masks and held back a laugh as he realized one was wearing Thomas the tank engine mask. The other just had a plain black ski mask. At least one of them was trying to mix it up. Michael ducked down as the thugs stomped toward the cashier.

“Listen up!” The long haired man with the Thomas mask roared in a thick jersey accent. “This is a robbery. Everyone get on the ground NOW.” He waved his gun around to look intimidating and the boy behind the counter yelped. One customer grabbed her two year old son worriedly as they got to the ground. Another patron dropped to his knees and started breathing heavily.

It was go time.

Michael raced to the front of the store where Thomas the stank engine had a gun pointed towards the cashier’s head and hippie hair held open a duffle bag. Michael looked over at the cashier and his heart leapt into his throat. The cashier was Rich. When had he started working at 7-11? He and Rich had become a lot closer since the Squips were defeated, closer than Michael had gotten with the rest of their squad. Rich had already been a nerd in the past so they shared a lot of the same interests. He joined Michael and Jeremy for game night every so often and tagged along to movies and the arcade. Rich had even asked Michael out once, an offer Michael politely declined due to his growing feelings for his best friend.

Rich who screamed when they played Mario kart. Rich who laughed so hard at Michael’s jokes that he snorted milkshake out his nose. Rich who had become his second best friend was now crying and staring down the barrel of a gun. He had to do something.

The large men stared at Michael in a way that would have been much more intimidating without one of them wearing a Thomas mask. “He said get on the ground.” The man holding the bag growled at Michael and train face turned his gun toward him.

In a second of panic Michael threw his hands up. Maybe he should try to solve this peacefully, he really wasn’t sure if he was bulletproof proof or not and he knew Rich certainly wasn’t.

“Look man I don’t want any trouble.” Michael started cautiously “just put the gun down and walk away and this can all end without violence.”

The two men looked at each other and then laughed. “Are you serious?” The bald man asked “why would we take orders from some weirdo playing dress up?”

“Says the guy wearing a Thomas the tank engine mask.” Michael shot back sarcastically. What was he doing? Was he really sassing the man with a gun?

“Ugh man I told you!” The ski mask guy groaned at his partner “no one is intimidated by your dumb ass mask.”

“Oh would you drop it?” The other whined looking towards his partner keeping his gun pointed at Michael. “They were sold out of ski masks and this was all I could find on short notice.”

Michael decided to take action while the two were distracted. He quickly shot a web out of his right wrist aiming for the gun, the web latched on. Out of shock the bald man’s grip on his gun slackened and Michael gripped his web and pulled the gun towards him. But accidentally pulled too hard and the gun came flying back towards his face. Michael’s left hand shot up in the nick of time and caught the piece, he sighed in relief, that could’ve been really embarrassing. He then dropped the gun to the floor and stomped on it. Thanks to the super strength it shattered into pieces.

Everyone in the store stared at Michael in disbelief. Then thug Thomas shook his head and charged at Michael, who sidestepped out of the way just before the guy could grab him. Michael stuck out his leg and tripped his would be attacker watching as the man fell to the floor painfully and landed face first on his stupid plastic mask, breaking it in half.

“Aww did Thomas get a boo boo?” Michael mocked standing over the man as he groaned in pain. “Here let me patch that up for you.” Michael stuck out both wrists and shot webs over the man’s body trapping him in the floor.

“Fuck this!” He heard the man who _seriously_ needed a haircut yell as he tried to run out the door. _Shit._ He’d been so wrapped up in dealing with one criminal he’d forgotten about the other. Before he could even process it, his legs started moving rapidly. Suddenly Michael was standing in front of the sliding doors having somehow beaten the robber there. Apparently he had super speed. Huh, that was new. The robber blanched as he turned the corner and saw Michael at the door.

“I- how? You were just- and now you’re- what?” Ski mask stuttered out confused.

“I’m a superhero duh.” Michael said as an explanation just before he shot his webs at the man, pinning him to the wall.

The entire store went silent for a moment, making Michael feel uneasy, but then the few patrons started cheering. Rich ran out from behind the counter and pulled him into a tight side hug.

“Woah what’s this for?” He asked nervously, instinctively putting an arm around Rich and patting his back.

“Are you serious? Dude you just saved my life!” Rich exclaimed through happy tears “Of course I’m gonna hug you! Oh my god wait” he ran off down an aisle and came back a few seconds later with a blue raspberry big gulp.

“Here take this!” He practically shoved the blue drink towards him “it was mine but now it’s yours, as like a token of gratitude for saving everyone.”

“I uh- thanks.” Michael was more of a cherry slushie guy but he didn’t want to be rude, it was a free slushie after all.

Just then a cop car pulled up. _Fuck._ He hadn’t really thought of how he would explain any of this, from the way things looked right now it seemed like he’d robbed the store.

“Oh god. How am I gonna explain this to the police?” He accidentally thought out load in a panic. Rich quickly grabbed his arm and confidently strode outside pulling Michael with him before he could protest. The police officer stepped out of his car confused as he reached for his gun.

“STOP!” Rich yelled holding his hand out and locking eyes with the officer. “This guy just saved the entire store, he can shoot webs from his hands and run really fast, and break guns with his feet, he’s a real life superhero!” He held up Michael’s arm in a victory stance.

Michael raised his other hand awkwardly and waved it a little. He looked around and noticed that there were a few people outside the store, some had their phones out. They must have been watching the robbery and one of them must have called the police. Michael shivered a little when he saw Jenna Rolan amongst the crowd with her phone camera trained on him. Everyone was going to know about his heroism now.

A news van pulled into the parking lot, seemingly out of nowhere. A large bearded man with a huge camera and a blonde woman dressed in a blue blazer, pencil skirt, and heels rushed out of the van. The woman held a large microphone. They booked it over to Michael and he was impressed at how fast that woman could run in heels.

“Bob are we rolling?” She asked excitedly, the man behind the camera gave a thumbs up and the blonde lady grinned as she pulled the microphone towards herself and faced the camera.

“A scene out of a comic book unfolded here today as two robbers were taken down but a masked vigilante who seems to have real life superpowers! We just received video footage from a local informant who was outside the store when the scene occurred, so of course Action 5 news rushed to get a full report!”

The blonde woman spun on her heels towards Michael and asked  
“So you’re the hero tonight?”

Michael jumped a little as she shoved the microphone towards him

“Um yes?”

She quickly brought the microphone back to her own mouth.  
“Do you actually have superpowers?”

The microphone was brought to him again as he stumbled out a yes.

“Who are you?” The woman asked smiling at him from ear to ear.

 _If I wanted you to know I wouldn’t have worn a mask._ Michael thought, he sweat as the microphone was staring him in the face. He had to think of something to say quickly before they tried to unmask him on live television. Then suddenly, he had an idea.

“Isn’t it obvious?” He said cockily into the microphone “I’m Spider-Man.”

Michael then bolted across the parking lot, he wasn’t quite sure how to activate his super speed, so he shot a web toward a street light and hoped he’d actually swing this time. He’d built up speed and momentum from running so when he pulled himself upward toward the street light, he was able to swing forward and shoot a web towards the next street light, and the next, and the next. He whooped cheerfully as he swung from light to light. He was actually doing it! He _was_ Spider-Man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not sorry for Jeremy almost breaking his penis with superstrength. That’s the greatest thing I’ve ever written.


	3. Jeremy the Fashion Disaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeremy paled. He instinctively reached out both his wrists and shot webs at the man’s back. Joseph dropped the knife and turned shouting “what the hell?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Possible TW: bad guy tells a female character to take off her clothes while holding another female character hostage. It doesn’t go further than that but I thought I’d mention it just in case.

Jeremy shivered as he walked down the darkened street towards the abandoned roller rink. He’d been using the old building as a place to practice his spider powers so that he could learn to control them.

He and Michael had loved going to the rink as kids but unfortunately not many other people did. So the retro rink was closed down after filing bankruptcy about three years ago. No one had purchased the building and the town hadn’t done anything with it since the rink closed. Since no one was using it or going inside, it was the perfect place for Jeremy to test out his secret super powers. Ya know, apart from the E. coli and mold. He had used his super strength to pull the door off its hinges and made sure to stick it back on with webs every time he left.

He’d always come in disguise since it was super shady to be breaking into old buildings, and he didn’t want to be recognized in case he got caught. So, he decided that the best thing to wear was something he wouldn’t be caught dead in. Jeremy wore a hideous checkered brown 70s suit jacket and pants his dad had passed down to him a few years ago. He remembered Michael excitedly commenting on how retro it was and Jeremy had replied that he’d wanted to burn it. But instead of burning it, he hid it in the attic for years. It was the perfect disguise paired with an old blue ski mask he’d also found in the attic.

Jeremy shivered again holding his arms against himself. He only wore a tank top underneath the suit, which was a bold choice for a January night in New Jersey. He always worked up a sweat once he was inside the building, so he’d only opted for a tank top today. He couldn’t wait to go in, throw off his suit jacket and swing around with his webs. It was a lot of fun despite his ever growing anxiety of being caught.

As Jeremy was walking past a large house, he felt a shiver go down his back. His head rose up in alarm and he looked around but he didn’t see anything. His super hearing picked up noise from inside the house.

“Joseph? But how? The restraining order-” A distressed woman cried.

“Did you really think a piece of paper would keep me away?” the man snarled. “You are my property.”

“No I’m not. I’m calling the police.”

“I don’t think so!”

Jeremy then heard a crash and sounds of struggling. Oh god what was he supposed to do? He could call the police, but he didn’t know if they’d get there in time. He could try to stop this man with his powers...but he’d never done anything like that! Sure he’d been training but that was different from stopping some abusive maniac. Besides what if the man had a weapon? Someone could get hurt if he interfered, oh god what was he supposed to-

“Mom?” Jeremy heard a small voice call from inside the house and his heart stopped. It was Chloe’s voice. He heard footsteps and then a gasp.

“Chloe run!” He heard Mrs. Valentine shriek.

Before Jeremy could stop himself, he bolted towards the house, running around looking for another entrance. He had to do something but he wanted the element of surprise, since he still had no idea if Joseph had weapons. He ran into the backyard and saw an open back door, he quickly and quietly snuck in.

He’d never been inside Chloe’s house before, sure they were friends now, but she never really invited anyone over. So he had no idea where to go. Jeremy saw that he was in a large spotless kitchen with a high ceiling. He looked around trying to hear where the commotion was coming from. Then heard a low male voice from the next room.

“Take off your clothes.”

Jeremy cautiously made his way towards the door and slowly turned the knob opening it. His nose wrinkled as he immediately smelled booze, He saw the back of a large man in a dirty brown leather jacket holding a brunette woman in a headlock. In front of the man he saw Chloe sobbing on the floor.

“Get that knife away from my mother!” Chloe shrieked desperately through her sobs.

“Not until you take off your clothes you little bitch!” Joseph screamed at her.

Jeremy paled. He instinctively reached out both his wrists and shot webs at the man’s back. Joseph dropped the knife and turned shouting “what the hell?” Mrs. Valentine got out of his grip and ran towards her daughter, hugging her protectively.

Joseph turned around enraged looking Jeremy up and down in confusion.

“Who the fuck are you supposed to be?” He snarled. Jeremy didn’t answer, he simply stepped forward. Joseph swung at him with his right fist and Jeremy somehow caught his punch. Jeremy squeezed his hand and heard a crack.

“Gah!” Joseph yelled in agony clutching is hand. He looked up at Jeremy clearly pissed. Jeremy turned towards Chloe and her mom where they looked up at the scene in fear.

“Go, call the cops!” Jeremy yelled. Mrs. Valentine grabbed Chole’s arm and ran with her out another doorway on the far right side of the room. Joseph turned towards them, about to follow when Jeremy tackled him to the floor.

“Yeah I don’t think so.” Jeremy sneered down at Joseph, pinning him to the ground with his strength. Joseph struggled against his hold. Jeremy looked at him intensely, should he web him up? Would the webs even hold him or should Jeremy keep him pinned?

Joseph had managed to wiggle his leg out from underneath Jeremy’s hold and kneed the boy hard in the crotch. Jeremy whimpered in pain and fell to the floor and Joseph got out from under him. The mad man picked up his knife and turned towards Jeremy menacingly. Luckily Jeremy had felt a _much_ worse pain in his groin recently, so he quickly snapped out of it. As Joseph swung the knife he shot a web at the high ceiling and flew up. Jeremy stuck to the ceiling and looked at Joseph down below. Joseph trembled and stared at him.

“What are you?” Joseph asked.

Jeremy heard a snap sound from a camera, and turned his head to see Chloe peeking her head in and taking a picture with her phone. Unfortunately Joseph heard her too.

“You!” He barked and started charging toward Chloe.

Jeremy quickly swung down from his web kicking Joseph in the back of the head and knocking him down again. Jeremy then lowered himself to the ground and shot webs out of both his wrists at Joseph as he writhed on the ground. Chloe stood shocked for a few seconds watching him twitch on the floor in the sticky webbing. Then, she came into the room fully and stood over the man who attacked her mother.

“Bitch.” Joseph muttered at her. Chloe lifted her leg back then swiftly kicked him in the face. _Hard._ He passed out.

“Holy shit.” Jeremy muttered. Chloe then turned her attention to him and Jeremy flinched. Her expression was completely unreadable as she walked towards him. Suddenly, she threw her arms around him and cried.

“Thank you.” She said into his chest “thank you thank you thank you.”

Jeremy was taken aback by her sudden hug, Chloe wasn’t normally so affectionate. And the last time she had been well- it wasn’t under the best circumstances. They’d talked about her behavior at the party and she’d taken it harder than Jeremy expected, calling herself a monster and swearing she’d never do anything like that again. Jeremy assured her that she wasn’t a bad person, she’d just done a bad thing. He’d explained that he couldn’t resist because of his Squip, so she didn’t even know he didn’t want...anyway, they’d talked it out, she’d made up for it in his mind, but he still stiffened at first when she clung to him.

After a couple minutes of hugging Chloe pulled away “So now that the nightmare has ended.” She said looking him up and down “what’s with the heinous outfit?”

“I’m in disguise.” He stated truthfully, dropping his voice to a lower octave. He didn’t want her recognizing his voice. Why did he even say that? It sounded so lame.

“Ok I know you just saved me and everything but I have to say this, that is the ugliest f’ing suit I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah, that’s why it’s a good disguise.” He shot back confidently “no one would be caught dead in it.”

Chloe laughed then got a serious look on her face before taking out her phone.

“What are you-” Jeremy couldn’t even get his sentence out before Chloe had her phone camera pointed at him.

“So this is the hero that just saved my life.” Chloe said smiling. “Curious minds want to know, who exactly are you and why did you save me?”

“Uh…” _Shit._ He had no idea what to say. Time to use what he learned from Christine’s improv lessons. “I saved you because you needed help.”

“Right, but that doesn’t explain who you are.” Chloe said carefully.

“I’m...I’m…” Before Jeremy could think of an answer he heard police sirens outside. He had to go. He really didn’t want the police bringing him in for questioning. He looked back at Chloe who was still staring at him, undeterred by the sirens.

“I’m Spider-Man!” He yelled into the camera. Then he shot a web at the ceiling again and swung himself through the open doorway into the kitchen. Jeremy booked it out the back door and climbed up and over a neighbor’s fence escaping through their backyard.

He mentally berated himself for lamely calling himself Spider-Man and running away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally Michael and Jeremy weren’t going to be saving Rich or Chloe. Michael was going to save a 7-11 employee that he knew named Maddie and Jerm was gonna save a random woman and her child.
> 
> But as I was writing Jeremy’s part my fingers typed Chloe’s name before my brain could even process and it just worked so well to me? I then went back and changed Michael’s but to include Rich because I felt like it was more personal if they’re saving their friends ya know?


	4. With Great Power...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He wasn’t sure what he was doing but he had a feeling it was hero time.
> 
> “Here.” Michael said to Jeremy tossing him the keys. Jeremy fumbled but managed to just barely catch them. “I’m going to see what’s going on. Stay here and lock the car.”  
> ____
> 
> He had to do something, even if he wasn’t Spider-Man right now. He had to take action. Jeremy locked the car and put the keys in his pocket as he ran into the smokey street.

Jeremy ran blindly threw yards and down streets until he was forced to stop and catch his breath. He hunched over leaning his hand against a telephone pole as he breathed in and out heavily. Once his breathing was normal again, Jeremy looked around to make sure he wasn't followed. He nearly screamed as he saw a cop car slowly approaching from far off down the street.

 _Crap!_ Jeremy thought as he hightailed it around the next corner and dove into a bush to hide. The line of bushes sat in front of a large apartment complex with a huge parking lot in front. The cop car slowly turned the corner and stopped. Two police officers got out of the car and walked to the sidewalk. Jeremy quieted his breathing as they got closer and closer to the bush. The twigs dug into his skin as he pushed himself further back to avoid detection. Jeremy still heard the cops walking around, one said something about a suspicious individual into his walkie talkie.

He wanted nothing more at that moment than to disappear. Jeremy heard the cops start walking down the street, _oh thank god_ he thought. He slowly raised his hand to move some leaves out of the way of his view so that he could see where the cops were. He then realized that his hand wasn't there. _WHAT?!_ Jeremy nearly shrieked but held his other hand over his mouth to stop himself.

Wait no. Jeremy’s hand was still there, he could still feel it, but it was...invisible? He moved his hand in front of him, he could still see the faint outline, his hand wasn't invisible it was just camouflaged. Jeremy checked his other hand and realized it was also camouflaged. He then rolled up his sleeves and saw that he could only see the faint outlines of his own arms too. He rolled up his pant legs and saw the same results on his legs. He had camo powers. Neat.

“Hey what's that?” Jeremy heard a cop shout as he ran toward the bush with a flashlight. “There’s someone in the bush.” The officer called out to his partner while shining a flashlight in Jeremy’s eye. _Fuckfuckfuck_ Jeremy screamed in his head.

Jeremy shot up suddenly, the lower half of his body still engulfed by the bush.

The officer trained his flashlight on Jeremy but froze in shock. “What the hell?” Jeremy looked down and saw that his gross suit was still completely visible. Ok, so his camouflage only worked on his own body. So it looked like a floating ugly suit and ski mask was hiding in a bush.

Jeremy quickly sprung into action, not wanting to stick around long enough for the police officers to realize he wasn't a pile of demonic living clothing. He ran into parking lot behind the bush and shot a web towards the side of the building. Only he didn't actually see his web shoot forward. Oh god, was he losing his powers already? No. He had still felt the web shootout so maybe it was camouflaged as well? Jeremy prayed that was the case as he took a leap of faith as he swung up. Thankfully he landed on the side of the building and stuck to it.

The teen breathed out a sigh of relief before scaling the building as fast as he could. He reached the flat roof, then ran and jumped off slinging a web to the roof of a nearby house as he jumped into the air. He swung and pulled himself up. He continued this, swinging from roof to roof directionless until he reached a street he recognized. He then started swinging towards his house.

* * *

Jeremy snuck in through his bedroom window. As soon as he was inside he threw off the suit jacket, pants, and ski mask kicking them under his bed before flopping onto it. What had he done? Sure he’d saved Chloe and her mom from that creep but he also ran from the police after turning practically invisible! This shit was absolutely nuts! His phone vibrated violently on the nightstand where he’d left it charging. Jeremy groaned as he reached over to unplug it and take a look.

He stared at the screen flabbergasted, notifications were rapidly filling up his screen before he could even read them. He noticed that most of them were from the group chat he had with his friends. He was about to open the chat when a huge wave of exhaustion hit him. Running from the cops really took a lot out of a guy. He passed out before he could read any of the texts.

* * *

Michael had crawled back into his basement from the window and was walking around his room pumped full of adrenaline. He was a real life Spider-Man! He totally just kicked butt and saved his beloved convenience store. Life was good. He then noticed his phone buzzing in his pocket and stopped, plopping down on his bed and taking off his mask.

He looked at his screen and was surprised at how many texts were coming in from the group chat. He opened it and scrolled for a minute until he got to the first one he’d missed.

 **Shortstack: OMG U GUYS IJUST GOY SAVEED BY FREAKING SPIDER MAN**  
**Yogurt_Puppy: what?**  
**Jakey D: dude quit messing with us at 1am.**  
**Shortstack: BRO IM SEEIOUS!,!,,,,!**  
**Shortstack: *serresios**  
**Shortstack: **seriioaus**  
**Shortstack: fuck it u no waht I mena**  
**Jakey D: do we?**  
**Yogurt_Puppy: I’m so confused**  
**Jakey D: Don’t b. Rich is prolly high n fuckin with us**  
**Shortstack: I SWEEWR IM NOTT!,,!!**  
**Lady WiFi: IT’S TRUE EVERYBODY**  
***Lady WiFi sent a video***  
**Lady WiFi: I caught it on video from outside!,!!**  
**Lady WiFi: someone else got a better one from inside it’s on YouTube.**  
***Lady WiFi sent a link***  
**Lady WiFi: ITS GONNA BE ON THE NEWS! CHECK IT RICHY BOY GOT INTERVIEWED**  
**Jakey D: omg WHAT?**  
**Yogurt_Puppy: this is nuts.**

 _Holy crap._ The group chat was blowing up over him, over _Spider-Man._ Wait the news...Michael grabbed his remote and turned on his TV immediately turning to channel 5. It was an episode of Seinfeld. Oh duh, the news cast was on hours ago. Michael stood up and grabbed his laptop off of his desk and sat back on his bed with it. He typed in the site for action 5 news and saw a link to a video on the front page, the caption read _Spider-Man is real?_ He clicked. It started with footage from inside the store that a customer had taken. Michael kicked ass. It then cut to his own “interview” when that blonde woman shoved a microphone in his face. He smiled as he saw himself proudly proclaim he was Spider-Man and run off into the night. That was so cool.

The video continued.

“Let’s go to some local witnesses and see what they have to say.” The blonde woman narrated over the footage of Michael swinging away. It cut to Rich excitedly bouncing up and down as he spoke into a microphone.

“IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME!” Rich exclaimed “THE GUY HAD ALL THE SPIDER POWERS AND NEW ONES! He can run real fast and break sh- _ ***BLEEP*** _ with his foot! Oh am I not allowed to say sh- ** _*BLEEP*_**

It then cut to a little boy who Michael recognized from the robbery. He couldn’t be more than three years old. He smiled into the camera as he said “Spider-Man is the coolest!” That warmed Michael’s heart. The video continued and now Jenna was in front of the mic.

“Here’s the local girl who reported it to our station manager.” The blonde woman said as she turned to Jenna. “Why did you share this information young lady.”

“Well my mom is the station manager,” Jenna started confidently “so I know a scoop when I see one. Middleborough has its very own superhero isn’t that amazing?”

Michael paused the video and smiled wide. He was Middlesbrough's very own superhero and it felt great. He opened the group chat back up to read the rest of the messages.

 **Jakey D: holy shit bro**  
**Shortstack: Bro!**  
**Yogurt_Puppy: woah**  
**Lady WiFi: And I thought evil supercomputers were the weirdest thing we’d ever experience**  
**Shortstack: IKR?!?!**

The mention of the Squip made Michael feel a little uneasy. He, Jeremy, Rich, and Christine had explained what really happened the night of the play to the rest of the squad. They decided that the rest of them needed to know. It was a weird experience trying to explain everything without sounding like total nut jobs. It probably only worked because once Jeremy and Rich started explaining how it felt, the rest of them remembered what it was like to be squipped. It was an emotional Tuesday.

Michael turned his attention back to the chat and his eyes widened at the next text.

**Queen Valentine: SPIDER-MAN SAVED MY LIFE!**

That’s odd, he didn’t remember Chloe being there, he felt like he would have noticed if she’d been at the 7-11. He continued reading.

 **Shortstack: join the club!**  
**Queen Valentine: what?**  
**Shortstack: scroll up**  
**Jakey D: damn chlo u 2?**

**Queen Valentine: I was saved by a different one.**

_A different one?_

**Queen Valentine: he was a lot less fashionable**  
**Queen Valentine: not that the combo of sweatpants, a hoodie, light up shoes, and a mask is fashion forward but…**  
***Queen Valentine sent a photo***  
***Queen Valentine sent a video***  
**Queen Valentine: c what I mean?**

Michael stared at the picture. It was some guy in an ugly ass brown checkered suit and a bright blue ski mask hanging upside down from a ceiling over a large bearded man in a beat up brown coat. _What the fuck?_ He then took a look at the video. Chloe had asked him who he was and why he saved her. When he dodged the question of his identity, she pressed for an answer and Michael thought he heard sirens in the background.

“I’m Spider-Man!” The checkered suit man yelled right before shooting a web up at the ceiling and exiting through an open doorway.

Ok so there was another fucking Spider-Man. What the fuck. Michael decided to keep reading as he tried to collect his thoughts.

 **Lady WiFi: OMG CHLO!,!!! CAN I SEND THIS TO MY MOM? THE STATION WILL WANNA INTERVIEW U**  
**Queen Valentine: sure**  
**Lady WiFi: good cuz I already did it**  
**Queen Valentine: y even bother asking?**  
**Lady WiFi: the news van is on the way to ur house**  
**Queen Valentine: k**  
**Yogurt_Puppy: wait chlo what happened?**  
**Queen Valentine: some psycho broke in and held a knife to my mom’s neck**  
**Shortstack: WAIT WHAT?!**  
**Jakey D: for real?**  
**Lady WiFi: wtf**  
**Yogurt_Puppy: r u ok Chloe?**  
**Queen Valentine: yea I’m fine**  
**Yogurt_Puppy: want me to come over?**  
**Queen Valentine: sure.**  
**Shortstack: damn dude when did NJ become sci fi central?**  
**Queen: g2g news is here**

Michael looked back at the video on his laptop, realizing it still had a good seven minutes after his segment. He unpaused.

“Another Spider-Man sighting took place at a local home tonight, but it appears it was a completely different hero!” The blonde woman narrated over footage of Chloe’s house. The video from Chloe’s phone played, then they cut to her interview.

“This absolutely deranged psychopath broke in, held a knife to my mother’s throat and then threatened me!” Chloe said exasperated into the camera. Was it just his imagination or did she seem...off? Chloe was nervously fidgeting with the hem of her jacket as she talked and she kept looking down. Chloe Valentine exuded confidence, she was never like this. It was like she was hiding something. Michael shrugged it off, probably just nerves after having a deranged man break into her home.

“It was absolutely insane.” Chloe continued, then her eyes lit up “but then this weird guy swooped in and saved my life! Saved our lives! He was incredible, even if he has absolutely no fashion sense.” She laughed and beamed a wide ecstatic smile into the camera. He noticed a woman that he assumed was Mrs. Valentine talking to a police officer in the background, she rubbed her arm and looked to this side with guilt? Michael squinted. That was odd. But again, he shrugged it off and kept watching.

“Well it looks like Middleborough has two Spider-Men to protect us!” The blonde woman said into the camera with a plastic smile. “This is Kathy LumBardy signing off.” The last thing the video showed was the picture of the other Spider-Man hanging from Chloe’s ceiling.

There were two Spider-Men. This was crazy, bonkers, absolutely nuts, and totally thrilling. Even though the other guy wore a truly grotesque seventies style suit, Michael was enamored with him. Sure, Michael had saved an entire 7-11 but this new spider had done a much more noble act of heroism. The police could probably have solved the situation at the 7-11 if Michael hadn’t shown up, but he doubted the Valentines would have been saved if brown checkered Spider-Man hadn’t swung in. He really wanted to meet the guy, shake his hand, and ask him about his spider powers. Maybe together they could both figure out where these strange new abilities came from. Maybe they could be a crime fighting duo! Michael’s eyes flicked back to his phone as he read more of the chat.

 **Jakey D: yo where are Mell and Heere at? They’d flip for this shit!**  
**Shortstack: omg yeh! Where are my fellow nerds! Come forth and geek out with me**  
**Shortstack: @Michael Mell @Jeremy Heere**  
**Shortstack: Helloooooo**  
**Shortstack: y’all there?**  
**Shortstack: I doubt u 2 r sleeping**  
**Shortstack: unless it’s with each other lol**  
**Shortstack: jk**  
**Shortstack: answer meeeee**

 _Shit._ Michael had to cover his tracks. No one had asked about Christine since she usually muted the chat and went to bed at a decent hour. but Michael and Jeremy had horrendous sleep schedules. They were regularly up at 4am sending memes and shitposts.

 **RedDew: yo**  
**Shortstack: dude wtf where have u been?**

That was a good question. He needed to think up a lie fast before Rich got suspicious. Despite his short legs, that boy was really good at jumping to conclusions, even if they were usually wrong. Michael typed the first thing that came into his head.

**RedDew: I got super baked and went on a spirit quest while playing mario**

At least his alibi made sense.

 **Shortstack: of course of course**  
**RedDew: just seeing all this now WHAT THE FUCK**  
**Shortstack: ikr?!**  
**RedDew: NOT JUST SPIDER-MAN BUT SPIDER MEN?!?!**  
**RedDew: THATS INSANE**  
**Shortstack: YEAH ITS WICKED**  
**RedDew: FUCK DUDE THIS IS CRAZY**  
**Shortstack: yo dude where’s Jerry? He’d love this!**  
**RedDew: idk**

He really didn’t know. Normally Jeremy would be up right now absolutely losing his shit over his favorite hero being real. And his favorite hero being double. Wait. _Jeremy._ Michael had to tell him! This was insanely cool and he needed to share it with his best friend. He’d thought for a minute about telling the others, and he probably would soon but Jeremy had to be the first to know. They’d made a pact when they were five that if either of them every got super powers they would tell the other first. Jeremy had even written up a contract in crayon and they’d both signed it so that it would be official. Michael never thought it would come up again but he was so stoked that it did.

Come to think of it, Michael hadn’t really hung out one on one with Jeremy in the last two weeks. He needed to fix that. He’d text his best bud first thing in the morning to hang out, then take Jer somewhere he could show off his spider powers. He would be so impressed!

Michael was about to crash for the night when he looked back at the chat, Jeremy must have fallen asleep early. Either that or he was intensely focused on a video game or book or... _something else._ Michael shook that particular thought from his mind. He was so not going to think about his crush masterbating right now.

 **RedDew: maybe he fell asleep**  
**Shortstack: or he’s ya know…playing with his joystick ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**  
**RedDew: gross**  
**RedDew: prolly true**  
**RedDew: but still gross**  
**Shortstack: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**  
**RedDew: wait hold on.**

***RedDew changed Jeremy Heere’s nickname from Player 2 to JerBear ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ***

Spider-Man excitement or not, Michael couldn’t pass up this golden opportunity to change Jeremy’s nickname in the chat. He did it pretty much anytime Jeremy wasn’t online so that he couldn’t immediately change it. He may love Jeremy, but he probably loved messing with him more.

Satisfied with his work, Michael sent a quick text to Jeremy about hanging out tomorrow then fell asleep.

* * *

Jeremy woke up to his phone vibrating underneath his chest. He grabbed it and looked sleepily at his screen.

 _ **Michael calling**_ his screen read. Come to think of it, Jeremy hadn’t seen much of Michael in the past two weeks wait...they hadn’t hung out one on one in _two weeks!_ Jeremy had been so caught up with his crazy spider stuff that he’d neglected his favorite person. Fuck he was being a bad friend, again. Jeremy immediately sat up and answered the call.

“Hello?” Jeremy answered sheepishly hoping Michael wasn’t upset with him.

“Dude!” Michael replied excited. He didn’t seem mad, which was a good sign. “We seriously need to hang today. I have something I’ve gotta show you.”

“Is it a new game?” Jeremy guessed lying back down. Listening to Michael’s happy voice put him at ease.

“Nope.” Michael popped the p. “Anyway dude I’m already outside your house so come on down.” Michael beeped the horn for emphasis, Jeremy heard it outside and through his phone speaker.

“WHAT?.” Jeremy bolted upright. “Michael I’m not even dressed yet. I just woke up and…” he raised his arm and sniffed his armpit “oh god I totally reek. Can you at least let me shower first.”

“Hmm. I could, but what fun would that be?” Jeremy could hear Michael’s smirk through the phone.

“C’moooon Michael please.” Jeremy whined into the phone in the most annoying way he possibly could.

“Mmmmnope. Besides I did warn you I was coming over text. Not my fault you left me on read.”

“What?!” Jeremy opened his texts and saw one from Michael asking to hang out, and another saying he was on his way to Jeremy’s. “Oh my god Michael I’m so sorry I really didn’t mean to! I fell asleep on my phone last night and I just woke up when you called I wasn’t trying to ignore you-”

“Woah Jeremy calm down it’s ok, I was kidding.”

Jeremy released a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“Ok I’ll be right down.” He said before hanging up the call. Jeremy quickly threw on a long sleeve shirt, jeans, and a sweater. He stepped into his sneakers and doused himself in axe body spray before rushing out the door.

As soon as he got into Michael’s car, the driver sniffed the air and grimaced.

“Dang dude you weren’t kidding about the smell.” Michael pinched his nose.

“It’s the axe.” Jeremy responded “it was supposed to cover up the smell.”

“Jeremy how much did you use?”

“...like half the bottle”

“Oh my god why?”

“I smelled really bad!”

“Well now you smell even worse!”

Jeremy glared as Michael held his head back and laughed. Michael’s laugh sounded so beautiful and pure, it was music to Jeremy’s ears. He couldn’t hold his frown any longer, he smiled and laughed in spite of himself. Michael’s laugh had always been contagious.

They took off down the road in a comfortable silence as David Bowie sang through the speakers. Jeremy broke the silence when he realized they’d missed the turn down Michael’s street, he’d assumed they’d be going to his house like they usually did.

“Where are we going?” Jeremy asked tilting his head confused.

“It’s a surprise!” Michael beamed at him. After a couple of minutes Michael turned down the radio to talk again.

“So...did you check the group chat last night?” Michael tried to ask casually. He thought it was weird that Jeremy hadn’t brought up either of the Spider-Men yet. With something like this he’d think Jeremy would be excitedly yelling about it the minute he’d answered the phone.

“Oh uh no.” Jeremy admitted “I kinda knocked out early last night. Just got suddenly tired ya know?” He didn’t even know why he was lying. He could tell Michael he was Spider-Man...or rather that he was a super powered dork pretending to be Spider-Man. He trusted Michael, he should tell him right? For some reason every instinct in his brain told him to keep it a secret right now and he didn’t even know why. Maybe he’d say something later today.

“Oh.” Michael responded staring blankly at the road. “Did you uhh see anything on the news?”

“No, I don’t usually watch the news. Why did something happen?” Did Jeremy’s spider antics end up on the news? Would Chloe have leaked the video to the media? Yes. She absolutely would. Maybe it was something else, not everything was about Jeremy after all. He tried to think of all the other things that could have happened last night.

Michael looked over at Jeremy, so he didn’t know. Michael would get to be the first to tell him. He was elated, he couldn’t wait to see Jeremy’s reaction. Michael bet the look on his face would be priceless.

“I’ll tell you later.” Michael smirked mischievously.

Confused, Jeremy opened his phone about to check the group chat and google news updates. _**Battery dead. Shutting down.** _ Of course. He’d taken it off the charger last night and never put it back on.

“Well my phone is dead.” Jeremy sighed.

“Guess you’ll just have to trust my report!”

Suddenly there was a loud rumble that shook the car. Michael pulled over to the side of the road and they both went wide eyed as they saw thick smoke filling the sky and people running away from something. They both felt a familiar shiver down their spines. Michael pulled the keys out of the ignition and shot out of the door. He opened the drivers side door to the back seat and pulled out a his backpack. Hed stored his costume in it to show Jeremy. He then looked back at his best buddy who met his eyes with a panicked stare. He wasn’t sure what he was doing but he had a feeling it was hero time.

“Here.” Michael said to Jeremy tossing him the keys. Jeremy fumbled but managed to just barely catch them. “I’m going to see what’s going on. Stay here and lock the car.”

“WHAT?” Jeremy screeched. “Michael you can’t just-”

“Jeremy it’s ok.” Michael smiled at his best friend trying to calm him down, it didn’t work. “I’ll explain everything when I get back. Just stay in the car and lock it.”

“Michael wait!” But it was too late, Michael slammed the car door shut and ran off into down until Jeremy could no longer see him in the sea of people.

 _Holy shit!_ Jeremy started panicking. He didn’t have his disguise, and he couldn’t very well just go swinging in as Jeremy Heere. He could get arrested. But he had to do something. People were in danger. Michael was in danger. Oh god Michael! Beautiful, glorious, stupid Michael. He’d run off and Jeremy had no way of protecting him.      _What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?_ Jeremy noticed his breathing getting heavier. He was starting to have a panic attack.

“No.” He said to himself out loud steeling his face as he stepped out of the car. He had to do something, even if he wasn’t Spider-Man right now. He had to take action. Jeremy locked the car and put the keys in his pocket as he ran into the smokey street.

* * *

Michael had ducked into an alley to change. He put his street clothes in his bag and tucked it behind a dumpster hoping it wouldn’t get stolen. Then he charged out and swung into action. Michael looked around the street and noticed the thick smoke was coming from a tall building. He looked up and realized there were flames coming from the top floor. Michael swung up the side of the building and crawled his way up the top. He peered in and noticed there were ten people inside the office trying to escape.

He punched the glass on the window, even with his new super strength it took a few punches before he broke it. He fist stung with pain from the glass but he ignored it as he looked around. He saw two exits, a staircase and an elevator, both were blocked off with flames. _Shit._ How was he supposed to get people out now? He looked around and noticed two people had passed out from the smoke. He needed to act fast. He then turned to look out the large hole he’d made in the window. Across the street there was slightly smaller building, he could see the roof from where he was. There was another tall building next to it, he could shoot a web at the tall building and land on the roof of the smaller one. _Perfect._

“Everybody listen up!” He shouted. The employees all turned to him with wide eyes. “I need you all to come to the window so I can evacuate everyone! Please help those who are incapacitated. And HURRY!”

The eight employees who hadn’t passed out ran over, two of them carrying their unconscious coworkers on their backs. They must have recognized him from tv since they were so willing to trust him. Either that or because they had no other options. Michael liked to believe it was because he was sorta famous now.

“Ok we’ll have to go one at a time.” Michael said “hop onto my back and I’ll swing you across.”

“Hang on tight!” He yelled as the first person climbed onto his back.

For the first eight people his plan worked out great. He’d swing them across and deposit them on the roof then swing back. Easy peasy lemon squeezey.

Then Michael struggled with the unconscious people. They couldn’t grip onto him properly since they were passed out. He’d tried waking them up but none of his attempts worked. He’d screamed in their faces, smacked them lightly, flicked their foreheads, nothing worked. He’d have to carry them across as is, which was difficult schmifficult lime _REALLY HARD_ , since he’d have to hold them up with one arm as he swung. His super strength made this easier but he didn’t have a good way to balance out the weight to make sure they didn’t fall.

For the first passed out employee this went fine. She was a very petite woman who he could hold up without much strain. The other person who was unconscious was a bit more heavy set, it was a tall burly man who looked like he was probably chiseled underneath his button up shirt. Michael heaved the guy upright, slinging the stranger’s arm around his shoulder and gripping him tight. He shot out a web and began to swing across like he had before.

Not even halfway across, the man started slipping. Michael held the man closer to him trying to tighten his grip. Despite his efforts, the man slipped out from Michael’s hold and began to fall down towards the street.

* * *

Jeremy covered his nose and mouth with his sweater sleeve as he ran into the empty lobby of the burning building. There was no smoke in the lobby. He’d noticed the smoke coming from the upper levels, so he was going to try and evacuate as many people as he could. He started up the stars and realized no one was in the stairwell. Odd. He thought it would be crowded considering the building was _on fire._ No one had been in the lobby either. Double odd. As Jeremy reached the second floor he saw that multiple people were banging on the door and screaming for help. He looked and realized the door had been welded shut.

Jeremy slammed himself against the door multiple times, eventually getting it to open. He was careful not to exude too much strength, not wanting the door to break off its hinges. He held it open as everyone rushed out, quickly checking to see if there were any stragglers. Seeing that there were none he headed up to the third floor.

He repeated this process for several floors, busting the door open, and holding it as people evacuated. After about five floors, he started swinging on his webs to get up the stairs faster. He shot them up at the wall above and swung himself over the stairs. He made sure he couldn’t be seen by anyone trying to escape.

It wasn’t until he reached the sixteenth floor that he started to smell smoke. He evacuated people and kept going. There was actual smoke on the eighteenth floor. Jeremy took his sweater off and wrapped the sleeves around the back of his head so that the garment could cover his nose and mouth. He only had one more floor to evacuate after this. He busted the door open again only to find that no one was there. Just an empty cafeteria, there was no one behind the giant cafe counter. Jeremy called out into the room anyway just to be safe.

“Hello? Anyone here?” There was no answer. He ran in looking for any unconscious people but found none. He turned back around to keep going but stopped as he saw a large menacing bald man standing in the doorway. The man had red burned looking skin and wore a silver jumpsuit.

“You ain’t supposed to be here kid.” The man sneered.

“W-who are you?” Jeremy asked in a frightened tone this man looked like a cartoon bad guy.

Burn face didn’t answer, he just slammed the door shut. Jeremy ran to bust it open but stopped when he noticed flames on the other side. Could his webs put out fires? He tested it out as the flames seeped in under the doway, they burned up his webs almost instantly. Well he was fucked. Jeremy coughed as more smoke gathered in the room. He was probably going to die. Splendid.

* * *

 _No. No. NO!_ Michael thought as he saw the man’s body fall. He ripped himself loose from his webbing and fell after the man. He didn’t know what to do. He was scared shitless. He was some dumb kid trying to play hero and now a man was going to die because of him! No. He wouldn’t let that happen, he couldn’t.

Michael got an idea and shot a web towards the man’s body with his left hand. He then shot one toward the building next to the one holding the people he’d saved with his right.

Michael really hoped this would work as he gripped the web he’d latched onto the man upwards with all his strength. The man shot us like a rag doll above the roof of the smaller building and started descending. That’s when Michael swung forward and caught the man mid air. Tumbling onto the roof cradling the stranger’s head. The office workers started clapping but Michael wasn’t in the mood to receive praise. He’d almost let a man die.

“I think everyone got out.” A woman said behind Michael “I saw everyone I knew exiting the building and running to the street.”

Michael got up and turned to her, she was peering over the edge. He looked across at the burning office building then squinted as he saw something. He used his enhanced vision and- _Oh no._ Michael saw Jeremy with his sweater sleeves wrapped around the lower half of his head banging desperately on one of the large glass windows on the second look to the top.

“There’s still someone in there!” Michael yelled out in a panic and he shot a web toward the office building and swung to his friend’s rescue.

* * *

Jeremy screamed and coughed as he banged on the large window. Normally his super strength would have broken the strong glass by now but his body was starting to shut down due to the heat and smoke. The glass had only cracked slightly. He was sure he’d pass out any minute now.

He looked out and squinted when he saw something approaching. It was a figure in a hoodie and sweatpants wearing a Spider-Man mask swing from a familiar looking white web. _What the hell?_ Jeremy thought as he backed away from the window.

Before he had time to process, hoodie man burst through the window shattering the glass. Jeremy held his arms in front of his face. Then lowered them and looked toward the guy. _WHAT THE HELL_

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” The masked man screamed at Jeremy. Jeremy flinched, then the masked man took a second and regained his composure. “I mean- you look pretty young to be working in an office kid.”

Jeremy’s mouth hung open in shock. _THERE’S ANOTHER SPIDER-MAN?!_ He shouted inside his own head. What the fuck was going on? He looked at the man up and down for what felt like an eternity.

“Look kid we gotta go”

“Who the fuck are you?!” Jeremy screamed over the masked hooded spider guy. This can’t be real.

“No time to explain!” The hoodie spider ran towards Jeremy faster than he could process and lifted him by the waist. “Hang on tight.” He muttered into Jeremy’s ear before he shot out a web and swung them both. Jeremy wrapped his arms around the stranger’s neck and screamed as they flew through the air. He was screaming because there was just too much happening at once and his brain couldn’t process it.

Michael swung them down to the alleyway where he’d placed his bag so that he could talk to Jeremy alone. He wanted to tell him his secret. He also wanted to scold him for running into a burning building.

When they got to the ground Jeremy was still screaming.

“SHUT UP!” Michael snapped his anger boiling over now that he knew Jeremy was safe. Jeremy snapped his mouth shut and stared nervously at him. They both realized Jeremy was still tightly holding onto him and Jeremy quickly let go walking backwards. He stumbled over some trash and fell on his ass and started breathing heavily. He untied the sweater from his face and held it in his hands. Great, Michael had freaked him out. He was still mad, but he had to calm Jeremy down first before he revealed anything and/or gave him a stern talking to.

“I’m sorry I yelled.” Michael said slowly lowering himself to Jeremy’s level. “I’m Spider-Man by the way.” He reached out his hand to help Jeremy up. Jeremy didn’t take it, just stared at him.

“WHAT?!” He shrieked. This was not going how Michael hoped it would. “Th-that’s impossible because I’m-” Jeremy stopped himself for a second then continued “I mean Spider-Man isn’t real!”

“Well he is now.” Michael said cheerfully. “And he’s me! So why don’t I help you up and we can-”

“MICHAEL!” Jeremy suddenly shouted jumping up. Michael jolted and rose up. Had Jeremy already guessed?

“Uh what?” Michael sputtered out intelligently.

“My f-friend M-Michael.” Jeremy stuttered. “He-he’s still in th-th-there.” Oh no not his stutter. When Jeremy stuttered it usually meant he was panicking or starting to have a nervous breakdown. “I-I have to g-go h-h-have to g-get him.”

Jeremy tried to shakily walk out of the alley way but Michael stopped him but holding his shoulders.

“Woah woah it’s ok.” Michael said calmly “I’m sure he was evacuated.”

Jeremy looked up at him suddenly pissed. Michael’s face flinched behind the mask.

“No he wasn’t because I WAS THE ONE EVACUATING PEOPLE!” Jeremy yelled angrily at the hero.

“Wait, you were evacuating people?”

“YES!” Jeremy squawked. “I went up eighteen freaking floors getting people out. I busted all the doors open because ALL of them were locked. What the fuck were you doing during that time? Because _I_ was saving people not you!”

Michael had to say he was impressed. Jeremy normally wasn’t this brave or bold. In all his wildest fantasies where superheroes were real, he never imagined Jeremy would yell at a hero. Granted, Michael probably would have yelled too had he been in that position.

“I saved everyone on the top floor.”

“So you didn’t save Michael.” Jeremy spat angrily. Then realization struck him and his eyes widened. _No one saved Michael._ Jeremy started crying and shaking. “Oh-oh my g-god M-M-Michael. No. N-nob-body. H-he w-wasn’t- he didn’t. Oh god no!” Jeremy stepped backwards again holding himself and sobbing.

“Hey hey it’s ok.” Michael approached him slowly really trying to sound comforting. “He’s safe trust me.” He was about to reach for his mask to show Jeremy that it was alright when the Jewish boy started yelling again.

“H-HOW DO YOU KNOW?!” Jeremy sneered loudly. He continued speaking through sobs and his voice sounded broken. “He-he j-just r-r-ran stupidly I to d-danger a-and I w-went after him but I couldn’t d-do ANYTHING! He’s s-saved m-m-my li-life. _Literally_ s-saved m-me and c-c-countless others and I couldn’t d-do the same f-for him. I-I’m so fucking useless. A-and now h-he’s probably…” Jeremy cut himself off with sobs.

Tears pricked Michael’s eyes behind the mask. He felt guilt overwhelm him, how could he do this to his best friend? That’s when Michael realized he couldn’t tell Jeremy he was Spider-Man. If Jeremy knew he was going to be risking his life on a regular basis he’d be overwhelmed with panic and worry. He’d feel the way Michael did when we saw Jeremy screaming in the burning building times a billion. He’d have to do this solo. He couldn’t tell anyone.

“I’m going to go look for you friend.” Michael said as he shot a web upwards at the building next to them. “Stay out of trouble.” Jeremy didn’t answer, just slid down the wall and hugged his knees. Michael flew away. Michael swung around to the roof then slowly and sneakily descended down to the back of the alleyway behind the dumpster where he’d stashed his bag. Thankfully it was still there.

Michael tried to change quietly but accidentally knocked into the dumpster as he was stuffing the mask back into his bag.

“W-who’s there?” Jeremy called out, not even bothering to stand up.

“Jer?” Michael called out cautiously as he threw his bag over his shoulder and walked out from behind the dumpster.

Jeremy’s head shot up and his whole body sprang upwards when he caught sight of the familiar red hoodie.

“MICHAEL!” He yelled excitedly, running over to his friend and tackling him into a hug. Michael caught Jeremy and immediately started hugging him back. They stayed like that for a few minutes, Jeremy quietly sobbing into Michael’s shoulder as Michael rubbed soothing circles into his back.

Then Jeremy suddenly backed away slightly and looked at Michael very seriously before grabbing both his cheeks. Michael’s face immediately heated up, he felt like he was about to burst into flame. Was Jeremy about to kiss him?

“Michael Mell don’t EVER do anything that stupid ever again!” Jeremy shouted in his face. Right. He’d run off like an idiot and left Jeremy to panic. Of course the boy wasn’t going to kiss him after that. “You scared me half to death you absolute fucking asshole.”

Michael thought he deserved the scolding after everything he’d put Jeremy through. But Jeremy had scared him half to death too and he wanted to lecture him so badly. Spider-Man knew that Jeremy had run into a burning building and evacuated people, but Michael Mell didn’t know. He could already tell leading a double life was going to be frustrating.

“I promise I won’t Jer.”

“Liar.” Jeremy spat before he started crying again. Michael held him again as they started heading to the car, with Michael’s arm around Jeremy’s shoulder.

On their walk back to the car Jeremy thought about it and decided that he needed to be a hero. He wasn’t sure before but now he was absolutely positive. He had these powers and he needed to use them to protect people. He needed a new costume too, something he could wear under his clothes so he’d have it at all times. That way he’d be able to leap in and use his powers without any hesitation or fear that he’d be caught. Lastly, he realized he couldn’t tell Michael about his powers. He couldn’t put Michael through the fear, the panic, the worry he’d felt today when he thought he’d lost his favorite person. He didn't even tell Michael about his help with evacuating the office workers.

As they got back in the car Jeremy also remember that he didn’t even know what had happened to Michael today.

“Michael what happened?” Jeremy asked “how did you end up behind that dumpster?”

“Oh uhh.” Michael hadn’t prepared for this, he said the first lie that came to mind. “I was running toward the building when that spider jerk grabbed me and swung me behind the dumpster...then I think I like passed out from shock or something.”

“What a jackass.” Jeremy grumbled. “Shoving civilians behind dumpsters and swinging around the city like he owns it.” He clenched his fists. He did not like how this new spider hero operated. “Who does he think he is?”

“Uhh Spider-Man?” Michael grinned.

“Yeah some Spider-Man.” Jeremy chuckled. “More like Spider-Dumbass.”

 _That’s fair._ Michael thought as he drove off. Maybe he’d go by that name from now on, since it seemed to suit him more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A much longer chapter but I wanted to get all this stuff set up before moving on! Soon we’ll be getting into dumbass love square stuff, fluff, and memes. :)
> 
> Edit: so I just edited this whole pic because I realized that when I copy/pasted it it didn't have any of the words I wanted bold or italicized. So that's fixed and I'll remember that from now on :)


	5. Clothes Make The Spider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Honestly Michael how long did you think you could keep this from us?”  
> _____________
> 
> “What are you doing here? Are you stalking me? Because like I’m still super grateful that you saved me and all but that’s absolutely fucking creepy.” Chloe crossed her arms and sent him a death glare.
> 
> Jeremy held back a shiver at her intense gaze. “No, I swear I’m not! I was just...in the neighborhood and I uh...I wanted to talk to her about something.” He lowered a hand and pointed at Christine. “I was on patrol the other day and I saw her leaving a fabric store and I’m sort of in need of a new costume so I thought maybe she could help me out?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the last establishing chapter before we get into memes and shenanigans.

Jeremy had caught up on all the double Spider-Man news as he hung out in Michael’s basement for the rest of the day. Things were still a bit tense between them. Jeremy’s relief over Michael’s safety had melted into anger as they drove away from the burning building. He was pissed that Michael would risk his life so recklessly like that. He knew it was hypocritical since Jeremy had done the same thing, twice, but he has superpowers and Michael didn’t, there was a difference!

Michael just sat uncomfortably and let his friend be angry. He knew Jeremy just had to ride out his emotions, and talking about it would probably lead to a fight and Michael couldn’t properly defend himself without revealing his secret identity. And that would make everything worse.

So the two awkwardly played video games in Michael’s basement barely even talking. Sure Jeremy was still super mad at Michael but he also felt very clingy. He felt like he needed to be by Michael’s side right now, he was irrationally scared that if he left somehow he’d lose his best friend. It was stupid, but he felt the need to be near his buddy even if his anger made things uneasy for the rest of the day.

Jeremy wasn’t just angry at Michael, in fact most of his anger was directed at the hooded Spider-Man. The guy was an absolute _asshat._ An overconfident jerkface who hadn’t even done his job properly! Jeremy had to save the people on the lower levels because the other Spider-Man was so freaking incompetent. The guy also insisted that everything was fine to Jeremy when it clearly wasn’t. To be fair, Jeremy knew that the costumed idiot was just trying to calm him down but he didn’t have to _lie_ him. Worst of all the jackass didn’t seem at all concerned over Michael’s life, he said he’d look for him but didn’t even bother to ask Jeremy what his best friend looked like. That hurt him personally. Michael’s life was valuable and should have mattered to that so called hero.

When Michael got a news update on his phone, he paused their game as the two boys watched the video. It was all about how the hoodie clad Spider-Man saved the day. The reporter mentioned that the other Spider-Man hadn’t shown up remarking that it was odd. _Yesterday it was odd for there to even be a spider man, let alone two now it’s odd when I don’t show? Give me a break._ Jeremy thought to himself. He _had_ been there after all, not that anyone would ever know, he’d saved a majority of the employees trapped in that building too.  

Shortly after watching the video Michael drove Jeremy home. Jeremy grumbled that it was getting late and he should go home, despite it only being six o’clock. Michael offered to let Jeremy sleep over, but the boy had declined his offer. Jeremy definitely wanted to, since he really wanted to be close to Michael right now, but he felt like he needed to think through a few things. He also wanted a way of letting loose the anger he’d been swallowing for the last few hours without taking it out on his player one.

Michael felt horrendously guilty for causing Jeremy to panic. He never wanted to see Jeremy hurt like that, but it was worse when _he_ put that hurt there. He also knew Jeremy was right, he got overconfident behind the mask and messed up. He was a Spider-Dumbass. Because he had gone directly to the top floor he had neglected the people below and somehow _Jeremiah freaking Heere_ had been the one to step in and save them. Jeremy had risked his life because Michael wasn’t doing his job properly. He would have to start taking this hero stuff more seriously.

Michael sighed as he closed his car door and headed back into his house, he’d just finished dropping Jeremy off and felt tired. He opened the door and was surprised to see his mothers standing there staring at him. Jasmin had her hands behind her back and Savannah had her arms folded. They stared sternly at him.

 “Michael.” Jasmin said in her _you-are-so-totally-grounded_ voice. “Care to explain this?” She cocked a brow as she held Michael’s Spider-Man mask out towards him.

  _Fuck._

* * *

Jeremy had scream cried into pillow for a good twenty minutes. It helped the rest of his anger subside for the time being, which was good because he had some serious thinking to do. He now paced around his room deep in thought. He needed a super suit. And it had to something he could wear or at least carry with him at all times, the checkered suit was in no way inconspicuous.

If he wore it under his clothes that’d be good because he’d literally be able to jump into action at a moment’s notice. But wearing a superhero costume under his clothes would definitely be noticeable, especially once it got warmer out. He couldn’t just wear long sleeves and pants for the rest of his life. If he was going to wear it under his clothing, it’d have to be like, invisible, or something- Oh duh. His webs turned invisible with his camouflage power, he’d make a suit out of webbings...but how the fuck was he going to do that?

Jeremy knew absolutely nothing about sewing and had zero idea if his webs could even been made into a fabric. If he tried to make it himself it’d be a disaster. He needed help, but who did he know that was going with sewing? He racked his brain for answers. Michael was pretty handy at sewing simple things, like the patches on his sweatshirt, but he never did any big sewing projects. Besides he _really_ didn’t want to bring Michael into this, not after the boy had even so reckless. Wait- Christine Caligula! He remembered her telling a story on one of their few dates about her sewing skills. She ended up having to make her Juliet costume from scratch last year.

He’d just have to ask Christine to help him make...his own...super...suit. Ok that was a terrible idea. His identity was supposed to be a secret after all. Jeremy couldn’t just walk up to her and ask her to make him a costume that’d be suspicious as fuck, especially if he went out doing vigilantly work in it.

He groaned to himself and put his head in his hands. He needed to figure this out soon. He had to be a hero, he needed to use his abilities to protect people. Especially when the only other guy who had powers was so _fucking terrible_ at it. Then it hit him, he didn’t have to ask Christine as Jeremy Heere, he could ask her as Spider-Man. Jeremy smiled as he started thinking up a plan of how to go about asking his friend to help him in disguise.

* * *

“Honestly Michael how long did you think you could keep this from us?” Jasmin asked the question in a way that Michael could tell she wasn’t actually expecting a real answer. Michael had already explained everything, the bite, the sudden super powers, and the hero thing...well they already knew about that. They had moved the conversation to the kitchen table, both of his mothers had poured themselves a coffee, it was going to be a long night.

“The amount of evidence is kind of alarming really,” Jasmin continued before her son could say anything. “You broke the front door off its hinges, you took the glass out of your glasses-” at this Michael reached up to touch his frames in shock. “Oh honestly honey you really did think we wouldn’t notice the glasses we pay for every year suddenly not having lenses? You’ve also been flighty recently, brought Jeremy around a lot less, and of course there’s the fact that you left the bag with your costume open on your bed.” She finished slamming her empty mug down for emphasis. It was one Michael had gotten her for Mother’s Day one year that read _World’s Greatest Mother_ , Savannah had a matching one of course. 

There was a pause as Jasmin stared at her son expectantly before turning to make more coffee. 

“I guess I just didn’t really think this all through?” Michael said sadly once his mom wasn’t trying to peer into his very soul. He looked at the table, not daring to make eye contact with either of his mothers.

“Well obviously not, I mean this is absolutely ridiculous! How could you expect to keep this a secret when you-”

 “Do you want me to stop?” Michael interrupted his mom before she could launch into another rant. He gave the women who raised him a serious look before continuing. “Because I can’t do that. I _won’t_ do that. No matter what either of you say I’m still going to use my powers to help people, I don’t care if you ground me or yell at me or disown me or whatever. I know it’s putting my life at risk and I hate seeing you worried about me but I need to do this. I feel like I need to use the abilities I’ve been given for good. I have to use them to protect people it’s like my duty or something.”

Michael looked determined on the outside, but he was internally panicking as his mothers stared at him wide eyed. His hands were balled into fists and he was on the verge of tears. 

“Sweetheart, we would never disown you.” Savannah, who had been quiet for the entire discussion finally spoke up. She reached a hand across the table and placed it lovingly over her son’s. “We love you no matter what, spider powers and all. As for the hero work well…” Jasmin and Savannah exchanged a look. “We discussed it before you came home and we won’t ask you to stop. But we do want you to be more careful, to be safer.” Jasmin glanced at her wife as she sat down at the table.

“Michael. Do you remember what I do for a living?” Jasmin asked in a serious tone. Honestly, he didn’t. She had some big important science job, most of her work was done from home on a computer but she also had to travel from time to time. He vaguely remembered her trying to explain it once, but he was ridiculously stoned at the time. 

“Um you’re a scientist?”

“That’s right, I work for a large technical company. Much of my job is spent doing research and occasionally helping to invent, test, and improve new classified technologies.” She grabbed a manila folder that had been sitting under a pile of mail on the table next to her. She opened it and slid it towards Michael. His eyes scanned the document in front of him, it was blueprints for some kind of jumpsuit.

“This is my latest project.” Jasmin started. “It’s a jumpsuit that’s reinforced with a rare steel titanium fabric meant to help protect the wearer. It’s bulletproof and it is not supposed to rip or tare. It is also remarkably comfortable as it adjusts based on someone’s body temperature and the weather. It is still in the test phases but this kind of technology could really make a difference. It’s meant to be worn under the clothing of very important people, such as world leaders, to protect them from harm.” 

“I don’t understand.” Michael stated confused. “Why are you showing me this.”

“Because you are the most important person in the world to me Michael.” Jasmin smiled at him, tears brimming behind her eyes. “And I will always do whatever it takes to protect you, hero or not.”

“Wait are you seriously going to make one of these for me?!” Michael shot up from his seat in excitement, he couldn’t hold back his large grin.

“I have some of the fabric here, it only comes in black. I’ll just need your measurements and I can get started making the base of the costume.” Jasmin tried to hide her amused smirk at her son’s enthusiasm behind her coffee mug.

“I also have some thread and other fabrics if you wanted to add any personal touches.” Savannah smiled warmly. “It’ll be a Mell family craft project.”

“OH MY GOD YOU’RE THE GREATEST MOTHERS IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!” The Mells all got up and engulfed each other in a group hug.

“Guess you’ll have to update our mugs.” Jasmin snarked holding hers up playfully. 

“I love you both so much! I can’t believe you’re actually letting me do this, this is freaking amazing!” Michael excitedly pumped his fist. 

“Not so fast Micah.” Savannah put a firm hand on his shoulder. “We still have to discuss being more careful with your secret identity and not just blindly rushing into trouble without a plan.”

“You’re also definitely grounded for lying to us Micah.” Jasmin added.

“Did you really have to use the nickname? That’s almost worse than being grounded.”

Michael jokingly groaned. His mothers had started calling him that when he was little and the mushy pet name stuck. He pretended to hate it but secretly found it comforting and sweet, it always made his chest feel warm. Jeremy had started using it jokingly when they were younger and still said It occasionally now which made Michael’s face heat up. 

“Then I guess we’ll just have to call you Micah exclusively while you’re grounded.” Savannah winked. 

Michael groaned again as his mothers each kissed one of his cheeks.

* * *

Jeremy had faked sick to get out of school the next day. He hated lying to his dad but couldn’t go to school with the checkered brown monstrosity in his bag. That’d be way too suspicious. He planned on waiting until Christine got out of play rehearsal to ask her in disguise about making him a costume. He knew she walked home from school everyday as he’d walked with her a couple of times.

So now he waited, perched up in a pine tree Christine’s house waiting to see her turn the corner and hoping no one would spot him. He was dressed in the suit, the beanie, and a pair of sunglasses, to keep her from recognizing his eyes. He really wished he didn’t have to feel like such a creep. Suddenly he saw the top half of Christine’s head come into view. Without second guessing it, he repelled down upside down and poked his head out from underneath the tree.

Two loud shrieks and a “Jesus fucking Christ!” met his ears as his head almost smacked right into...Chloe? Jeremy had been so focused on seeing Christine he hadn’t thought to check if she was with anyone, and of course she was with Chloe and Brooke. Chloe backed up slightly while Christine and Brooke had jumped back a few feet.

“Wait. _Spider-Man?”_ Chloe asked peering at him after getting over the initial shock.

 “Uh yeah.” Jeremy answered embarrassed before clearing his throat and lowering his voice. “Sorry about the scare ladies.” He internally cringed.

“What are you doing here? Are you stalking me? Because like I’m still super grateful that you saved me and all but that’s absolutely fucking creepy.” Chloe crossed her arms and sent him a death glare.

Jeremy held back a shiver at her intense gaze. “No, I swear I’m not! I was just...in the neighborhood and I uh...I wanted to talk to her about something.” He lowered a hand and pointed at Christine. “I was on patrol the other day and I saw her leaving a fabric store and I’m sort of in need of a new costume so I thought maybe she could help me out?” Jeremy recalled Christine excitedly telling the group about all the new fabrics she got last week, extremely thankful he remembered that little tidbit.

“So you’re stalking her?” Chloe stood protectively in front of her friends, trying to fix Spider-Man with a glare to show that she was not to be taken lightly.

“What? No! Look I just really need some help with a new look and I need someone who could make me an outfit.”

Christine quickly jumped forward in front of Chloe and stuck her hand out with a smile.

“Hi I’m Christine Canigula and I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot here.” Jeremy shook her hand hoping his palm wasn’t too sweaty from nervousness. “I totally get what you’re going through. You got so wrapped up in the part you’re playing here that you’ve let it overtake your completely throwing social norms out the window! I get the same way when I’m super into a role, like when I was Blanche DuBois I spoke with an aristocratic southern accent for weeks without even realizing it.” She giggled. “What were we talking about again? Oh right! You wanted me to make you a costume. I’d be honored to help!”

“Really?” Jeremy beamed.

“I wanna help too!” Brooke spoke up from behind Chloe. “Chloe and I have wicked good fashion sense so we could come up with a good design.”

“Brooke!” Chloe snapped then looked between her and Christine. “You two really think we can trust this guy?”

“He saved your like Chlo, I’d do anything for him.” Brooke said simply not even making eye contact. Chloe blushed lightly. Then Christine, Brooke, and Spider-Man all looked at her expectantly, she was the only one who hadn’t agreed to help yet.

“Well I guess I do owe you for saving me.” Chloe gave in. “Fine I’ll help, but never be this fucking creepy again.” 

“Deal!” Jeremy smiled.

* * *

They brought him back to Christine’s house, she informed him that her parents weren’t home as they were attending a wedding out of town. The four of them set to work in the Canigula’s living room, Brooke and Chloe sketched out designs as Christine took the hero’s measurements.

“So did you have a specific fabric in mind?” Christine asked as she brought the tape measure around his waist.

“Oh well, I was hoping it could be made out of my webs.” Jeremy stated a tad nervous at the physical contact. Christine was a very touchy person, in fact most of his new friends were, but he still hadn’t quite gotten used to it. It took him like five years to get used to Michael’s touches and now he had six other people to adapt to. And now he also got flustered over Michael’s touches. Jeremy was a goddamn mess.

“Why?” Brooke asked from her position on the couch. “Wouldn’t they be kinda sticky and uncomfortable?” Chloe suppressed a chuckle.

“Well, I have this camouflage ability and it only works on my skin and webs, and I’d wanna wear this under my clothes so I can just easily jump into hero mode ya know?” Jeremy scratched the back of his head nervously as the three girls stared at him. He stuck out his hand and used his power to demonstrate. It looked as if his hand had vanished completely.

“Woah.” Brooke marveled at him as the others gasped.

“Ok that makes sense.” Christine’s awe wore off pretty quickly as she got back to business. “But I think the sticky webs would be pretty difficult to work with...unless we tried pairing them with another super thin light fabric, but even then it might be super hard. Is there anyway you could make your webs less sticky?” 

“I’m not sure, I could try?” Jeremy guessed. He pointed his wrist at the floor concentrating, chanting _don’t be sticky_ in his head. He shot a small web on the floor and Christine picked it up to feel it.  

“It’s still sticky.” She said sadly. “Do you know if the webs lose their stickiness over time.” 

“Oh yeah.” Jeremy remembered the first web he shot at his wall the day he’d been bitten had fallen down by the morning. “But I’m not sure how long it takes for them to become um...unsticky?”

“We can wait it out.” Christine decided. She then walked off and rummaged around in a hall closet before coming back into the room with a large grey plastic bin. “Why don’t you shoot a bunch webs into here and when they’re useable we’ll have a ton of material to work with.”

Jeremy got to work filling the bin with webs, hoping he had enough, as he’d never shot webs for this long before. Christine said something about getting snacks from the kitchen and Brooke followed her to see what kind of drinks they had.

Chloe remained on the couch continuing her work in the sketch book while occasionally looking up at the checkered suit hero. She stiffened when the other girls left the room and looked away every time Jeremy tried to make eye contact. After a few minutes Jeremy tentatively tried to break the silence.

“I really am sorry for coming off like a creepy stalker earlier.” Chloe looked up from her work, but Jeremy continued to look down into the bin as he continued. “I wasn’t really sure how to go about asking for help but I definitely did it in the worst way possible. I’m sorry if you’re uncomfortable around me now.”

There was a pause that felt like an eternity before Chloe responded.

“Look I still love what you did for my mom and I.” She started, looking back at the sketchbook. “I’m eternally grateful, really. But it’s just been a lot to process, and you didn’t really stick around afterwards or give any explanation of why you were near my house at all. We had to talk to the police alone, I showed them the picture and video I took on my phone just so that they wouldn’t think we were absolutely crazy. It’s just- you were there for the saving part but you didn’t stay to help clean up the mess ya know?” She sighed before continuing.

“And like I get why you wouldn’t want to hang around, you probably would’ve been brought in for questioning, the police would have found out who you were and that would have totally sucked but…I just had to watch my mom explain everything, she was so shaken up and I feel like it would have been easier somehow if you’d been there to help explain things. It made me wonder if I should even trust you. And then you just show up out of nowhere again like some kind of _stalker_ and god I don’t know! It’s all so weird! Ugh. I’m really just glad Jo- I mean that guy is in jail now. Creep deserves to rot.”

Jeremy couldn’t even begin to fully process all of that. But the way Chloe almost said her attacker’s name stuck out to him. He realized she must have known Joseph before the incident. Oh god were they related? Was that her dad? Had he done something to her before? Before he could even say anything Chloe cut him off. 

“And before you ask, no I’m not related to him and no he never laid a finger on me before. He never got the chance.” She stated matter of factly. Jeremy shivered a little, startled at how easily she read his mind.

“I’m really sorry I made you feel like you couldn’t trust me.” Jeremy started off looking into the bin guilily. “I didn’t want to get arrested but now that you’ve said all that I definitely could have done more to help. I should have stayed for questioning, I mean I- Jesus Christ, I have freaking super powers I obviously could have escaped if they tried to detain me.” He laughed a little at his own stupidity. “But I panicked. I was a scared idiot who had no idea what he was doing. Hell, I still don’t really _know_ what I’m doing! But that doesn’t excuse the fact that I messed up. I need to take more responsibility for my actions and start acting like…like the hero I want be.” 

He finally looked up and saw Chloe fixing him with an intense gaze, but it was different from her death glare. It was softer, but still determined. It was almost as if she was searching for something in him. That’s when Christine and Brooke came back into the room and Chloe dropped her gaze immediately. Christine had a plate of peanut butter crackers and chips while Brooke balanced four drinks in her arms. Christine placed the food down on the coffee table. Brooke set the drinks down too before handing a cold soda to Chloe, she then got up and walked over to Jeremy with a glass of water.

“We didn’t know what you liked so I brought you some water.” Brooke said cheerfully.

“Uhh thanks.” Jeremy took the water and drank some, he didn’t realize how dry his mouth was. 

“Help yourself to some food too! I know it’s not much but we can always order something later.” Christine smiled wide as she sat down on the couch and munched on a peanut butter cracker.

“No thanks, I should really get going, I-” Jeremy’s stomach grumbled loudly cutting him off. He blushed under the ski mask. 

“Oh stick around spider boy.” Chloe smirked at him. “We have to wait for the webs to be ready anyway, you might as well entertain us.” 

“Ok.” Jeremy awkwardly smiled as he took a seat in a chair next to the couch. He leaned forward and grabbed some chips stuffing them into his mouth.

* * *

It’s really strange to hang out with your friends and pretend you didn’t actually know them at all. Things were a tad awkward for Jeremy at first, but eventually he let himself relax. They ordered Chinese food and played a game of Cards Against Humanity to kill time. Jeremy was careful to put down cards he never would have played normally, just pretending to be terrible at the game. No one had expected someone as innocent as Christine to absolutely dominate Cards Against Humanity. At one point Jeremy laughed so hard water came out of his nose. This caused Brooke and Christine to howl with laughter.

Chloe simply grinned at him, for the first time Spider-Man really seemed human to her. He wasn’t just some web slinging hero, he was an overwhelmed guy just trying his best and she had to admire that.

Eventually they checked on the webs, noticing that they were no longer sticky and got to work. Christine got out her sewing machine as Brooke came up to Jeremy grinning with a sketchbook in hand.

“Ok so Chloe and I combined our ideas for this one, and I really think you’ll like it.” She said as she confidently handed him the sketchbook. 

Jeremy’s mouth hung open in amazement. The design was similar to the classic Spider-Man suit, a silver webbed pattern covered the entire thing and it had been colored in with dark blue colored pencil. A silver band separated the top and bottom of the suit and a large silver spider logo was on the chest, with its legs stretched out over the top. 

“We really thought blue would suit you.” Chloe chimed in from the couch.

“And silver pairs really well with dark blue.” Brooke added. 

“It’s perfect, thank you so much!” Jeremy grinned from ear to ear.

“I have some fabric dye upstairs we can use.” Christine said as she leaned over to look at the design. She took off to get the dye as the other girls pulled the webs out from the bin, excited to start dyeing them. She came back in moments later with a box of different colored dye.

“Alright everyone.” She smiled excitedly. “Let’s get to work!”

* * *

 

After a long night of working and reworking, of dyeing and sewing and cutting, it was finally done. Jeremy stepped out of the Canigula’s bathroom proudly. Christine happily jumped up and down clapping her hands, Brooke squealed in delight, and Chloe smiled looking over their work. 

“This is so much better than brown checkered disaster.” Chloe snarked.

“We should totally burn the suit.” Brooke commented. 

Brooke raised her phone, about to take a picture of Spider-Man when Jeremy reached out his hand.

“Wait no!” He yelped. “I just...no one should know you made this for me. I wouldn’t want you getting hurt or put in danger for helping me ya know?”

“Oh I totally get it, classic hero thing, you’re really getting _super_ into this role huh?” Christine giggled at her own pun as Brooke sadly lowered his phone.

“Fine, we won’t tell anyone, just don’t take credit for our hard work ok? This was a team effort after all.” Chloe said in an authoritative tone.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Jeremy replied smiling. “Thank you all so much. If there’s ever anyway I can repay let me know.”

“You can do your job.” Chloe stated with a playful smile, and Jeremy smiled back under the mask.

All three girls waved as Jeremy swung out of an open window into the night, feeling ready to be a true hero.

* * *

“So what do you think?” Savannah asked Michael as he looked at himself in the mirror. He was wearing the super suit they’d all stayed up making together, it was a black jumpsuit with red trim that covered him from head to toe. There was an added black hoodie with cozy red cotton lining the inside that sat over his mask. It was like a combo of his two favorite spider heroes from the comics, Miles Morales and Gwen Stacey.

“It’s perfect!” Michael beamed as he wrapped his arms around both of his mothers who kissed his cheeks warmly.

“Good. Now take it off and go to bed, you still have school in the morning.” Jasmin instructed.

“What? I still have to go to school tomorrow? But it’s three am! I’ll be a zombie if I go in tomorrow.” Michael protested.

“True, but you still need an education.” Savannah rebutted “Besides we wouldn’t want anyone getting suspicious now would we?”

Michael loudly groaned as he took off his hero suit and went to bed. He was incredibly tired but he couldn’t fall asleep, far too excited about becoming the hero he always fantasized about. He smiled as he pulled the covers up around him, slowly drifting into a dream where he swung around with webs carrying a certain brown haired Jewish boy in his arms.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like how this one turned out, even though Michael's moms have the most plot convenient jobs ever lol 
> 
> I'll reveal Chloe's backstory involving Joseph in a later chapter.
> 
> Gonna be getting into more gay shit in later chapters but I really wanted to set everything up first, and now I'm excited to write about these dorks in love. Might even sprinkle in some pinkberry who knows? ;) 
> 
> I've been getting myself to write a little bit for this pic everyday even if it's only a sentence and that's definitely helped with the process I think. I can usually bang out a chapter per day but I'd been really tired the past couple days. Sleep is important. Hope ya'll enjoyed this one!


	6. Not So Solo Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They each held up one finger and pointed to one another in shock. 
> 
> “Who the hell are you?” Both boys asked at the same time.
> 
> “Well duh I’m Spider-Man.” Michael said proudly.
> 
> “What do you mean you’re Spider-Man? I’M Spider-Man!” Jeremy shot back angrily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its the moment you've been waiting for...

It took Jeremy three days to even notice his name had been changed in their group chat. He was looking through the group settings out of boredom when he spotted his new name. He let out an annoyed sigh as he typed out a message.

**JerBear ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ: Y didn’t anyone tell me about the nickname change?**

**Shortstack: Y did it take u so long to notice?**

**TheRealJuliet: wait you didn’t know?**

Christine turned around in her seat in from of him with a childish grin. She only texted in school during free period, which she shared with Jeremy, Jake, and Jenna. They jokingly called themselves Christine and the J-Squad. Jenna snickered next to him and Jake simply smiled. Jeremy thought they were all traitors.

**Yogurt_Puppy: we thought u knew lol**

**Lady WiFi: I thought you liked it XD**

**Jakey D: yea same here lmao**

**JerBear ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ: who did it?**

**Queen Valentine: who do you think?**

Jeremy groaned in the real world as his friends giggled around him.

**JerBear ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ: oh god dammit Michael**

**RedDew: yo**

**JerBear ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ: why do you insist on torturing me?**

**RedDew: because it’s funny lol**

**RedDew: And now there’s 6 more ppl to laugh with us**

**Shortstack: lmfao**

**JerBear ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ: ur all laughing AT me not with me**

**RedDew: awww cmon JerBear, I know you love the nickname~**

**Lady WiFi: especially when it’s from your boyfriend ;)**

Jeremy blushed and sputtered awkwardly as Jenna wiggled her eyebrows at him. Christine stifled a giggle and Jake just smirked. He felt like he could feel Michael laughing at him from somewhere on the other side of the school in his math class. In reality Michael was also blushing slightly from Jenna’s comment. Them dating was just a funny joke to everyone else. They both sighed quietly from opposite ends of the school.

***Shortstack changed Jeremy Heere’s nickname to Boyf***

***Shortstack changed Michael Mell’s nickname to Riends***

**Shortstack: throwback.**

Jeremy looked down at his backpack awkwardly as he remembered that fateful day back in September. The Squip had Jeremy play off the writing on his bag as a joke, and somehow that worked. Neither one had bothered to wash the writing off of their backpacks. Jeremy saw it as a gesture, to show that they were still in this together in spite of everything that happened. Their lives were still a two player game. Michael had insisted that gestures matter after all. Jeremy couldn’t help but agree.

**Boyf: you’re all the worst.**

**Riends: awww cmon JerBear**

**Shortstack: yeh JerBear**

**Jakey D: u kno we’re just messing with u JerBear**

**TheRealJuliet: we love you JerBear**

Even Christine was teasing him? Jeremy had to retaliate.

**Boyf: Michael don’t make me use my secret weapon**

**Riends: what weapon? lol**

**Boyf: your favorite nickname~**

**Riends: what?**

**Riends: wait no**

**Riends: Jeremy you wouldn’t dare.**

**Boyf: I think I would.**

**Shortstack: omg JerBear just send it!**

**Boyf: Michael loves it when people call him Micah**

**TheRealJuliet: aww that’s adorable!**

**Riends: Lies, slander, fake news.**

**Boyf: aww what’s the matter Micah?**

**Boyf: can’t stand being beaten at ur own game? ;)**

**Riends: I will get you for this Heere.**

**Shortstack: ooh better watch out JerBear, Micah is coming 4 u**

**Lady WiFi: in more ways than one**

**Shortstack: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)**

The bell rang signaling the end of the school day as Jake, Jenna, and Christine laughed around Jeremy who sweat nervously.

“Really Jenna?” He asked her in an accusatory tone.

“What can I say? I call it like I see it.” Jenna shrugged and walked off before Jeremy could ask what she meant.

Normally they’d all head to play rehearsal together but that had been cancelled today as Mr. Reyes had been called in for a shift at Home Depot. So, Michael and Jeremy were planning to play Apocalypse of the Damned in Jeremy’s room all afternoon. Just like old times.

Michael was leaning against his car waiting for Jeremy and checking the news. He wanted to know if any major crimes were happening, in case he needed to spring into action. Luckily it seemed like a slow news day. Both boys were looking forward to hanging out today. They needed a good gaming sesh after the chaotic events of the last few days. Just as Jeremy exited the school building, he got a crime alert on his phone. He’d downloaded the local news app and set it to notify him of any breaking news updates.

Both Jeremy and Michael felt a shiver up their spines as they saw the report of a new bank opening being held hostage downtown. Jeremy ran to Michael’s car, trying to think up an excuse to cancel their plans without seeming suspicious, meanwhile Michael was doing the same thing.

“Hey Jeremy I-”

“HEY MICHAEL I GOTTA GO HOME ALONE TODAY BECAUSE MY DAD NEEDS ME TO UNCLOG THE TOILET !” Jeremy internally cringed at himself for the lamest excuse in the world and also for the completely unnecessary shouting. He really needed to brush up on his improv skills. Other students gave him weird looks as they walked to their cars.

Michael blinked at Jeremy in surprise. He knew his friend was definitely lying and freaking out over something but he didn’t have time to worry about that right now.

“Uhh ok. My mama just texted anyway saying I gotta come home right away anyway. I guess they’re having some of the family over or something.” Michael sweat nervously, he hated lying to Jeremy but he tried to get over it, seeing as Jeremy had just clearly lied to him.

“Oh uh ok.”

“You good walking home?” Michael asked then instantly regretted it. He didn’t have time to drop Jeremy off he had crime fighting to do.

“Y-yeah. I’ll see ya tomorrow Micah!” Jeremy ran off. As soon as he was far enough away from the school he jumped behind a bush and took off his clothes, willing his suit to become visible. His mask was attached to the back of his suit like a hood. He pulled it over his head, shot out a web and swiftly swung over to his house. Jeremy dropped his stuff off in his room, sent a quick text to his dad saying he’d be at Michael’s, then left to go thwart some bank robbers.

Michael sped out of the school parking lot. He parked a few streets over then grabbed his super suit out of his backpack. He checked to make sure no one was watching as he put it on at a ridiculous speed. He then got out of his car, locked it,  and put his keys in one of the pockets of his suit. Michael took off swinging towards the bank at high speed.

* * *

Jeremy had managed to sneak in through a high window and was now crawling around on the bank’s high ceiling in camouflage mode. He counted ten armed figures with masks on. All of the hostages were on the ground. He noticed that one of the figures was talking into what he could only assume was a cellphone. He’d seen the police outside, so he knew they were probably trying to make a deal. Jeremy actived his super hearing and listened in.

“Listen to me. We’re taking all of the money that we can carry, we’ll only release the hostages if you let us get to the next county peacefully.” The mysterious man spat out in a voice far too deep for any human. He must have some kind of voice modulator. _Oh god he sounds like Jigsaw._ Jeremy thought to himself _what a creep._

“You wouldn’t want to cause the death of mayor of New Jersey would you?” The creep spoke menacingly into the phone as he grabbed a nearby hostage and held a gun to his head.

“Please help.” Cory Booker, current mayor of New Jersey, said as the phone was thrust into his face.

 _Holy shit they have the fucking mayor?!_ Jeremy supposed the elected official must have been here to commemorate the new bank...either that or he needed to make a transaction. Jeremy really needed to stay updated on politics, he didn’t even recognize his own state’s mayor!

“Fine.” Jeremy heard the officer state reluctantly from the other end of the phone.

“Good.” The strange figure said into the phone, keeping it on speaker as they turned to his fellow robbers. “Bridges tell Eagle to bring the truck around back. Maze, Blade, and Bosco start filling up bags. The rest of you keep your guns pointed at your hostages. I’ll keep the mayor busy.”

“Roger that Alpha!” One of the masked people said in a robotic voice while stalking off to follow orders.

 _Alpha must be the mastermind._ Jeremy thought to himself as he devised a plan. _I don’t want the mayor or anyone else getting shot so I’ll have to sneak attack him when he lets his guard down. I’ll strike when he’s not holding a gun to anyone’s head. I just have to wait for the perfect opportunity to-_

Suddenly, one of the large glass windows broke as someone jumped through it bursting into the scene. A blur sped into the center of the room and stopped. Someone in a black and red hooded spider suit stood in the middle of the room with fists up.

 _What the fuck? ANOTHER ONE?!_ Jeremy screamed in his head.

After getting over their initial surprise, all of the masked figures pointed their guns at the hooded man.

“Woah now friends no need to get hostile.” Michael held his hands up in mock surrender. “Just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man here trying to do some good.”

Jeremy wanted to smack his head against the ceiling. Was every other Spider-Man this incompetent? _At least he’s distracting them._ Jeremy thought as he lowered himself down still in camo mode. Alpha still had a gun to Cory Booker’s head, Jeremy planned to sneak down, knock him out and take the mayor. He slowly and carefully got lower as the other Spider-Man kept talking.

Michael looked around at the guns pointed towards him and frowned behind his mask remembering his mother’s strict warning. _“The bullet proof feature hasn’t been properly tested yet so don’t go getting yourself shot Michael or I swear I’ll rip off and burn every single patch on your hoodie.”_ He knew it was probably an empty threat but that wasn’t a risk he was willing to take.

“Did those dumb pigs send you?” Someone in a bird mask with a weird inhuman voice asked.

“What is this a cult meeting?” Michael asked as he noticed all the creepy masks. “And me without any koolaid.”

“Silence.” Alpha barked out angrily.

Jeremy was right behind Alpha now, raising his fist to attack when -

“What the fuck is that?” The hooded Spider-Man looked at something he saw behind Alpha’s head. He hadn’t meant to speak out loud but he was shocked, he could see the faint outline of someone suspended from the ceiling.

Alpha turned slowly and locked eyes with Jeremy. Jeremy now saw that Alphs wore an actual jigsaw mask. Suddenly he felt his camouflage turn off. So the blue and silver spider hung there awkwardly, fist raised.

“Uhh this isn’t what it looks like?” The blue Spider-Man said with a nervous lilt in his voice.

“What is this some kind of convention?” Alpha angrily snarled. “All of you get them!”

That’s when all hell broke loose. Michael sped around grabbing the guns out of the robbers hands and smashing them. He then started scooping up any hostage he could grab and swinging them out the open window. He plopped each one on the ground safely and repeated the process.

Jeremy planted his feet on the floor, the stranger in the bird mask pointed a gun and his head and he immediately grabbed the weapon and crushed it in his hand. Jeremy elbowed the bird in the stomach knocking the weirdo back. He then tried to swing at Alpha, who caught his hand and judo flipped him. Jeremy used the opportunity to jump up and grab the mayor in an attempt to get him to safety.

“Let go of me!” Cory Booker struggled against Jeremy’s grasp.

“Sir calm down I’m trying to save you!”

“Oh fuck this.” Mr. Booker then turned around and punched Jeremy in the face.

“Gah!” The blue superhero grabbed his face in shock. “What the hell?!”

Cory took out an old Nokia cellphone and pressed a button. “Code Delta!” He shouted into the piece of outdated technology.

That’s when the back of the building exploded. Michael shielded the last hostage against his chest. A large truck trailer backed into the massive hole in the wall. The metal door shot up and every robber started booking it towards the open trailer. Cory Booker ran toward it as well. Jeremy and Michael both tried to sling webs at the criminals to catch them, but each time their webs were dodged. Michael tried catching up to them with super speed. As he reached out to grab a woman in a pig mask, she whipped out some weird metal stick and shocked him. Michael stopped as he yelped in pain and clutched his side.

Alpha stood in the trailer and looked back at them before throwing a small round black object on the ground before closing the trailer with a loud slam. Both spiders shot up webs and swung in the air towards the trailer but ended up knocking into each other and falling to the ground. They both groaned and held their heads. That’s when the small round device started beeping and before either of them could blink a thick smoke covered the entire area. They heard the truck roar to life and speed off as they coughed up smoke.

After the smoke dispersed the truck trailer was nowhere in sight. Jeremy and Michael jumped up and stared at the other. They each held up one finger and pointed to one another in shock.

“Who the hell are you?” Both boys asked at the same time.

“Well duh I’m Spider-Man.” Michael said proudly.

“What do you mean you’re Spider-Man? I’M Spider-Man!” Jeremy shot back angrily.

“No I’m Spider-Man!”

“No I am!”  
  
“Well I’m the cooler Spider-Man!”  
  
“Oh my god.” Jeremy groaned when the realization hit him. “You’re that arrogant hoodie wearing idiot.”

“And you must be the fashion disaster!” Michael scoffed. “I actually thought you were cool, but turns out you’re just a coward.”

“Excuse me but how am _I_ a coward?”

“You just sat around waiting, I was the one who-”

“I was trying to sneak up on them with my camouflage ability you ass! While you just came in and ruined everything. You even exposed me while I was trying to SNEAK ATTACK! God do you even know how much property damage you caused breaking that window?”

“Forgive me for wanting to make a dramatic entrance.” Michael huffed as he folded in arm off his chest. This guy was totally throwing off his groove.

“Oh my god you’re impossible. There were hostages genius, you could have gotten them killed busting in like that!”

“I was distracting those masked weirdos while I took in my surroundings. People would have died if they had to wait around for you to save them!” Michael felt the anger boiling within him.

That’s when the police arrived through the front door. Michael was ready to bolt when the blue clad spider grabbed his arm.

“Wait.” The blue pain in the ass said seriously. “We should at least explain what happened and see if we can give the police any leads. It could help bring those creeps to justice. It’s what a _real_ hero would do.”

“Fine.” The black and red spider spat out as they both walked over to the large number of police officers piling into the building.

* * *

A blanket was wrapped around the last remaining hostage as the two heroes explained what had happened to separate police officers. The police were weirdly stoic about talking to masked vigilante superheroes. Jeremy guessed it was due to the crazy situation. Michael didn’t really care as long as they weren’t shooting at him.

Jeremy mentioned the weird incident with the mayor punching him in the face and the police woman he was speaking to assured him that it was an imposter. They had just received confirmation that the real mayor was in his office before they came into the building. Jeremy took comfort in knowing that the real mayor wasn’t some kind of criminal mastermind. Or was he? Jeremy seriously needed to catch up on local politics.

Just as they finished up taking to the police, a news crew came in. Kathy LumBardy smiled widely as she signaled for Bob to start rolling. Despite the protest from the police, she ran up to Michael and Jeremy who both backed away in alarm.

“Are you two the same Spider-Men in better costumes?” She wasted no time getting to questions as she shoved the microphone out towards them.

“Uhh..” Jeremy wasn’t sure if he should tell the truth or if it even mattered.

“Yes.” The hooded Spider-Man apparently made the decision for both of them.

“Will you two fight as a duo from now on?”

“No.” The hoodie punk spider answered again before Jeremy could even say anything. He glared at him under the mask.

“I see that you’re the more talkative Spider-Man.” Kathy said chuckling

“I want to go by a different name actually.” The black and red Spider-Man spoke up again. “I’m Red Widow.” He looked toward Jeremy before continuing. “And I work alone.” After that, Red Widow took off using his super speed, running through the large hole in the back of the bank.

_Showoff._

“And what about you?” Kathy LumBardy whipped towards Jeremy with no hesitation. “Will you be going by a new name as well?”

“Uhh…” He probably shouldn’t go by Spider-Man anymore, not if he wanted to be taken seriously as a crime fighter. Plus he should forge his own identity, it’s something he’d thought about it when he got the suit made. But he hadn’t picked out a name yet. Were there even species of blue spiders? He couldn’t think of any. Once again Jeremy would have to rely on his instincts and improvisational skills.

“Call me umm the Uhh...The Blue Spider!” Thats when Jeremy took off, swinging away through the newly made back entrance.

Jeremy’s instincts sucked so much.

* * *

Unbeknownst to either of them, the last remaining hostage had taken a video of their little verbal spat, and it was starting to go viral. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The floodgates have opened, the memes will only increase from this point on. You've been warned.
> 
> Sidenote: I know the spacing between the texts is different here, thats how spaced out when I pasted it and it's not letting me change it. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	7. Critically High Levels of Sass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So I heard that The Blue Spider has an eight pack, that The Blue Spider is sh-shredded.”
> 
> “Dude you heard wrong. The Blue Spider is a punk bitch. He looks like he weighs thirty pounds soaking wet.”

Jeremy looked at his phone once he was home from the bank debacle and groaned loudly. He saw the video not only from his group chat but also from his Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts. It was  _ everywhere.  _ In fact, it was already being memed. People were comparing it to the one Spider-Man meme where he points to a clone of himself accusingly. It was so embarrassing. Several users were picking sides and continuing their fight in the comments, it was really divisive.

The next day at school Jeremy realized how bad the fighting was once he got to his lunch table. He sat down next to Michael who was jamming out to some song with his headphones on and eyes closed completely oblivious to the chaos around him. His other friends hadn’t noticed him sit down, they were too engrossed in their group argument.

“Red Widow is definitely the better hero!” Rich stated proudly. “He has the better outfit, personality, and name, I mean what kind of hero name is The Blue Spider anyway?” 

“I like the name.” Christine shot back “I think it’s simple and easy to remember, it draws people’s attention, like Superman.”

“Red Widow is a better name though.” Jake commented taking a sip of his soda “Rich has a point.”

“Red Widow is like a bad guy name.” Brooke said simply. “Like I dunno it sounds more evil than good.”

“I think they’re both just idiots who need to get their shit together.” Chloe grumbled angrily, barely even looking up from her phone. She was gripping the device so hard her knuckles had turned white. God damn she was pissed. “I mean they let those asshats get away.” 

“They’re first time heroes Chloe they’re bound to make mistakes.” Christine said softly. “Especially when one of them is being a pompous jerk.”

“And the other is a sniveling coward.” Rich snapped.

They were about to start going at it again when Jenna interrupted.

“Don’t you guys think they’d make the cutest couple?” She asked excitedly. Everyone stopped and stared at her. Jeremy nearly choked on his apple juice.

“What?” Chloe asked with a brow raised.

“I don’t know they just seem like they’d make a good couple. Like sure right now they’re enemies but they become lovers ya know? It’s a classic romance scenario.”

Everyone stared blankly. Then realization hit Jeremy and he flushed.

“People are  _ shipping  _ them?!” His voice cracked as he asked.

“Yep.” Jenna answered smiling. “Most people are taking sides but there are a few shippers out there, myself included.” Jeremy wondered how Jenna could be so  _ shameless. _

“What’s shipping?” Jake asked confused.

“Jake my friend that is not a road you want to go down.” Rich placed a hand on Jakes shoulder and hung his head down.

“It’s basically when you think two or more people would make good relationship partners.” Christine explained. “It’s usually only something people do with fictional characters but sometimes it’s done with real people too.”

“You’re oversimplifying it Chrissy.” Rich said as he chuckled. 

Christine simply shrugged.

“Ohh so it’s like how we think that Jeremy and Mic-” Rich slapped a hand over Jake’s mouth before he could finish his sentence.

“YES!” Rich practically yelled in Jake’s ear. “Exactly like that but never say it out loud around…” his eyes darted to Jeremy’s flustered face then to Michael’s closed eyes and peaceful grin. “You know who again.” 

“Uhhh w-w-what was that a-about?” Jeremy’s stuttered out as he looked over at Rich.

“Nothing!” Rich squeaked. 

“Hey Jerry did you wanna come with us to pink berry after school?” Brooke asked him changing the subject. “Michael can come to...whenever he’s done with his music.” She giggled.

“Uh sure sounds great.” Jeremy said nervously. He was still distracted by what Rich and Jake had said but was glad for the distraction from whatever  _ that  _ was.

Lunch continued as normal from that point on. Christine and Rich still occasionally sniped at each other about the two Spider heroes but other than that it was completely normal. Michael had put his headphones on as soon as he heard them arguing. He didn’t want to talk about the stupid Blue Spider or the ridiculously cool Red Widow, he just wanted to eat lunch in peace and not have to think about his hero stuff. He already got an earful from his mothers about being reckless at the bank, he didn’t need to hear more people bashing him.

* * *

Things settled into a new routine after the bank incident. The two heroes continued their work separately, stopping different crimes. They both caught a few muggers here and there, helped cats down from trees, helped old people cross the street etc. etc. But anytime they ran into one another things seemed to go wrong. They each insisted on doing things their own way, not even attempting to communicate with one another.

That’s how criminals got away, cats hissed and scratched at them, and old ladies smacked them with canes. It was honestly pretty ridiculous.

Despite some failures here and there, both The Blue Spider and Red Widow rose in popularity. The lunch time arguments continued amongst their friends. Jeremy chimed in occasionally, mostly staying neutral but leaning more towards The Blue Spider. Michael always stayed out of it.

* * *

A thought popped into Jeremy’s head one lazy Sunday afternoon in Michael’s basement. He, Rich, and Michael had been passing around the bong for an hour getting properly stoned before they started playing a game. Jeremy realized he’d never heard Michael’s opinion on his superhero half. And he wondered why not? I mean everyone had been talking about him, so it was weird that he had no idea how Michael felt about either hero.

Jeremy didn’t know if it was his crush, his curiosity, or the weed that caused what he said next to come out of his mouth.

“So I heard that The Blue Spider has an eight pack, that The Blue Spider is sh-shredded.” Jeremy said as casually as he could while his hands fidgeted with the controller and a blush dusted his cheeks. What was he doing? Rich looked over at him confused.

“Dude you heard wrong.” Michael said not even looking away from their game. “The Blue Spider is a punk bitch. He looks like he weighs thirty pounds soaking wet.”

Rich cackled loudly and Jeremy’s mouth hung open as his eyebrows furrowed.  _ Ok, rude.  _ He self consciously leaned back into the beanbag and slumped. Experiment failed, Michael clearly didn’t like The Blue Spider, more specifically he didn’t like his body, which meant he didn’t like  _ Jeremy’s  _ body either. He tried to pretend he wasn’t hurt by that and just continued playing the game without saying anything else.

Michael was annoyed. He’d glanced at Jeremy when he asked the question, he looked all flustered and doe eyed the way he did when he had a crush. One could only conclude that Jeremy has a crush on The Blue Spider. So first The Blue Spider fucks up his attempts at heroism, and now he was stealing the heart of Michael’s crush too? What an asshole. How could Jeremy fall for the lamest hero ever when the best one ever was right there in front of him? Michael pushed down his jealousy and kept playing their game.

An hour later they were all passing around the bong again when Rich spoke up.

“Ya gotta admit, Red Widow has some big dick energy.” 

“Yeah.” Michael blushed lightly as he nodded in agreement. 

“No way.” Jeremy said through coughs looking pissed as he passed the bong to Michael who lit it immediately. “He's probably just overcompensating for his micropenis.” 

Michael choked on the smoke he was inhaling as Rich snorted and fell out of his beanbag laughing.

“I still think he's hot but damn Jeremy that was fucking savage.” 

Jeremy let out a cold and bitter laugh. Michael immediately thought it was odd, that's not how Jeremy laughed. He laughed in many different ways, sometimes it was light and airy, sometimes it was goofy and loud, but it was always warm and cheerful. Michael absolutely  _ loved  _ his laugh, but this? This just sounded cruel to his ears. Maybe it was because Jeremy was laughing at  _ him.  _

That fucking stung. Michael faked a laugh to cover up his insecurities. Just like your average depressed teen. 

Jeremy scoffed in his mind. He knew Rich was into Red Widow but now Michael was too? He saw that little blush. Michael’s blushes were adorable yet rare and elusive. They usually disappeared as quickly as they appeared. And now he was blushing over that Spider-Asshole? Right after he made it clear how undesirable he found Jeremy's hero persona. That was the cherry on top of this shit sundae.

* * *

 

Out of frustration, both boys went to the internet to vent their complaints over the next few days. Both were careful not to praise themselves, but they each harshly criticized the other unknowingly. Jeremy often pointed out the flaws in Red Widow’s techniques while Michael made crude comments about The Blue Spider. He also started a rumor that The Blue Spider was a furry. 

“A furry seriously?” Jeremy grumbled to himself on patrol one day. He’d seen it on reddit along with a Blue Spider fail compilation video someone had masterfully put together. He even made an account just to argue with some basement dweller about  _ himself. _ It made him feel self conscious, but he was a hero dammit, cyber bullying shouldn’t affect him!

Michael was walking back to his car headphones blaring with a bag full of thrift shop goodies. He’d gotten them as a pick me up after a particularly annoying debate with some idiot who was defending the stupid Blue Spider. Couldn’t that guy get it through his head that The Blue Doofus was trash? 

He was pulled out of his thoughts by a hand being clamped over mouth, and familiar tingle going up his spine. He felt himself being pulled from behind and then shoved to the ground harshly. 

Jeremy felt a shiver as he looked down and saw something that made his heart clench. Michael being shoved into an alleyway.  _ Fuck no.  _ Jeremy thought as he lept into action.

Michael rubbed the back of his head, he must have hit it on the way down. The stranger yanked Michael’s headphones off and held them above his head. Michael looked the tall figure up and down. He wore a creepy yellow smiley face mask, a large hat, and an ugly dark trench coat. 

_ Dude you picked the wrong teen to mess with _ Michael thought as he instinctively reached towards his hoodie pocked to retrieve his folded up spider suit. Then he stopped himself. He couldn’t reveal his secret identity to this criminal, not doubt he’d expose Michael and ruin everything. Michael had never really thought of this situation before, what to do if he was cornered by a bad guy in civilian form. So, he started doing what he did when he didn’t know what to do as Red Widow, start talking so he could think up a plan. 

Jeremy peered over a rooftop down into the alleyway where Michael was lying on the ground as a tall figure stood over him. He slowly started crawling down the side of the building in camo mode as he heard Michael start speaking.

“What do you want from me?” Michael spat out as he stood up. “Aside from my rocking headphones.”

The man didn’t say anything, he just started creeping closer toward Michael. Michael started backing away. He wasn’t prepared for this either, he could usually keep the bad guys talking, this was weird. 

“Woah now let’s not invade anyone’s personal space here.” Michael put his hands up as he kept walking backwards. The man persisted forward.

“I’m serious dude you don’t wanna mess with me, my uh, my dad is the chief of police!” Michael lied, desperate to deter the creeper. “I could have you locked up in two seconds flat! My uncle is a Judge too so good luck getting out of jail ever.” He quickly grabbed his phone out of his pants pocket holding it up threateningly. “I have them both on speed dial!” Michael yelled.

The stranger simply reached a hand out and smacked Michael’s phone out of his hand. 

“Or you could just do that...very clever, kudos I wasn’t expecting that.”

Michael gasped when he realized he’d backed up into a wall. He was trapped. The stranger stopped in front of him and then whipped a knife out of his pocket.  _ Fuck.  _ Michael would have to reveal himself or find out what it’s like to be a shish kabob. Just as he was raising his wrist to shoot out a web, someone beat him to the punch, literally.

The Blue Spider jumped in between Michael and his would be attacker and punched the stranger in the face.

“Stay away from him.” The hero practically growled as the smiley man dropped the knife.

“Great, I’m being saved by Captain Lame-o.” Michael muttered under his breath. He hadn’t meant to say it out loud, whatever it’s not like The Blue Spider can hear him-

“What? I just saved your life!” The Blue Spider turned back towards Michael exasperated. “Could you at least pretend you don’t hate me?”

Michael stared in shock for a second before looking behind his so called savior and seeing that the bad guy was running away. Jeremy turned around as well and let out a quiet “shit.” 

“Could you at least do your job?” Michael snarked. 

Jeremy looked back at him and then grabbed him by the waist and shot a web upward. He got them both up the wall before setting Michael down on the roof of a building.

“Hey what the-”

“Sorry, no time for this, I gotta catch that guy but I wanted to let you down somewhere safe first.” The blue hero explained before running off and swinging downward to catch the perp. 

Michael huffed.  _ Whatever guess I’ll just have to show him how a real hero does it.  _ He was about to pull out his hero suit when he realized that the suit wasn’t there. He’d left it in his other hoodie. Michael swore to himself. Curse him for trying to switch it up and wear a purple hoodie today! Guess he’d have to continue this as a civilian. He ran across the rooftops faster than he hoped anyone could see as he kept his eyes open for the knife wielding psycho.

Both Michael and Jeremy saw smiley creep heading for a large closed down bridge. He was much faster than either of them had expected. Michael waited on top of a building as the man rounded the corner. His plan was to jump down onto the criminal as he ran beneath the building. He had to time this just right. Michael jumped off of the rooftop he was on and…The Blue Spider swung directly into him. They both would have hit the ground hard had Jeremy not shot up a web and caught Michael’s hand. He gently lowered the Filipino to the ground. 

“I thought I told you to stay put!” Jeremy was about to scold Michael when the knife guy swooped in and grabbed Michael by the arm. Smiley lifted the boy into a fireman’s hold over his shoulder and took off toward the bridge. Jeremy pursued him.

_ Never thought I’d be the damsel in distress.  _ Michael thought pouting. He started pounding on the man’s back and flailing his legs hoping the stranger would drop him. The asshat’s grip only got stronger, so Michael kicked it up a notch by adding a bit of super strength to his punches. The man didn’t budge. 

Creepy asshole knife guy continued running until they were at on the middle of the bridge, that’s when Jeremy shot a web at Smiley’s foot making the man stop. 

“Drop him.” Jeremy demanded in a voice he hoped was threatening. 

Smiley put Michael down but didn’t let go of him. He had a strong grip on Michael’s shoulders. Then, he grabbed Michael by his purple hoodie and hoisted him up over the edge of the bridge. Michael once again squirmed in his grasp. 

“Don’t!” Jeremy yelled reaching a hand out. But it was too late, Smiley released Michael. Without thinking, Jeremy jumped over the side of the bridge falling down after his crush. He shot a web up towards the bridge. It stuck  _ Yes!  _ He then shot one down to catch Michael, it also stuck to Michael’s hoodie.  _ Two for two! _ Michael held onto the web with both hands for dear life. 

“You ok?” Jeremy yelled down to Michael who held out a thumbs up. He smiled behind the mask. Michael started to smile in relief but frowned when he saw something on the bridge. He used his enhanced vision to focus in on it. It was the smiley man holding up another knife and waving.  _ Where did he get another knife? _ Michael asked himself. 

“Look out!” He screamed. Jeremy turned around just in time to see the smiley fucker cut his web from off the bridge. Both buys screamed as they fell further and further towards the water. 

The cold shock of the water hit Michael as he felt himself being pulled down by gravity. He saw The Blue Spider splash into the water above him reaching out a hand. Michael took it, seeing no other option. Jeremy pulled Michael and himself up to the surface. They both gasped loudly once their heads were above the freezing water.

_ Gotta save Michael  _ Jeremy chanted over and over in his head as he felt his body going numb. He reached over pulling Michael toward him, intending to swim them both to shore when he felt his body shutting down. Not even his super human abilities could protect him from the freezing waters.  _ No no no _ . He blacked out.

“Shit. Blue Spider?” Michael called out to him as the superhero slumped forward. “Hey! Super fucker wake up!” Michael tried slapping him awake but it didn’t work. He felt his body going numb too. Then he got an idea, his super speed could still work underwater right? That’s what Michael hoped at least and he grabbed onto The Blue Spider’s waist and started rapidly kicking his legs. Luckily, his underwater speed theory worked and he was able to pull the spider on duty safely to shore on an empty beach. 

Michael started walking away then looked guiltily over his shoulder at the lifeless body of the other hero. He couldn’t just leave him there. So, Michael hoisted the Blue Spider up, wrapped his arm around the spider’s waist and held the blue guy’s arm over his shoulder. Then he ran as fast as he could back to his car, careful to run down less populated streets to avoid being seen. He knew people couldn’t really  _ see  _ him when he ran this fast but he wanted to be cautious, since he wasn’t Red Widow right now.

Michael opened the door to his back seat and laid the hero down in it. He grabbed a blanket from his trunk and threw it over the man. He didn’t need to be on the news for kidnapping The Blue Spider. Michael then grabbed a long sleeve shirt and some sweatpants from his trunk and went to the alley way to change. The running had pretty much dried him off but he didn’t need the super dork getting suspicious when he woke up. He also scoped up his headphones and phone the attacker had dropped and made his way back to his car. There was no sign of the bag of patches he’d gotten from the thrift store.  _ Whatever.  _ Michael was thankful that’s the only thing that was taken. As soon as he got in the car he turned the heat up as high as it could go and took off, heading anywhere that would be less populated. 

Michael wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing. Why was he going out of his way to save a guy he hated? He supposed it was because he owed the blue man for saving his life and well… maybe he felt like he was being too harsh on the guy before? He pushed that thought down as he looked into the rear view mirror and noticed shivering coming from beneath the blanket. Michael pulled over down a side street. He took his signature red hoodie out from the front seat and shrugged it over The Blue Spider’s head. He dressed the unconscious man and laid him back down, but not before removing his spider suit from the hoodie pocket and putting it in his glove compartment. He threw the blanket back over the hero and drove once again. 

Michael mentally chastised himself. Why hadn’t he gone back to his car to change into his suit before pursuing the bad gay? Because he clearly needed to think things through more. And because he was apparently an idiot, he’d forgotten the hoodie was even in his car.

He drove until he saw an abandoned parking lot next to a factory.  _ Perfect.  _ Michael thought as he pulled in. He parked the car, unbuckled his seatbelt  and turned around in his seat to face the other spider. He reached out a hand to try and nudge him awake when his phone started ringing. Michael turned his attention to his touch screen  **Mama calling.** Oh boy, well he’d have to get this conversation over with anyway. 

* * *

_ Jeremy felt weightless as a cold darkness engulfed him. He frantically looked around for Michael but saw no sign of his best friend/crush. He felt his body freeze. He couldn’t move. Michael suddenly appeared before him gasping for breath and reaching out to him. Jeremy tried to grab him but his body still wouldn’t move. Behind Michael the smiley man appeared with a knife. Jeremy tried to scream, to warn Michael, but he couldn’t. Smiley man swung the knife down and- _

Jeremy gasped quietly as he opened his eyes. It was just a dream. Thank god. He pulled the blanket closer to him when he realized he wasn’t in his bed. He shot up quickly and regretted it feeling a pounding in his head. He looked around and recognized where he was. There was a dim light on in the front seat, he was in Michael’s PT cruiser. But where was Michael?

“I know it was risky mama.” He heard Michael from outside the car door and looked out the window. Michael was pacing and talking on his phone.

“But I didn’t want to just  _ leave him there  _ on the beach, I may not like him but I’m still supposed to be a-”

Jeremy tapped on the window and Michael looked over at him surprised and stopped mid sentence. 

“Uhh...Still supposed to be a decent guy. Mama I’ll have to call you back, he’s awake.” Michael hung up the phone and got back in the front seat. He was turned around in the seat facing Jeremy. Jeremy was momentarily distracted by how gorgeous his crush looked in the low light of the car when another pounding in his head brought him back to reality.

“Uhh What happened?” He asked deepening his voice as much as possible.

“Well you saved me from a knife wielding maniac in a creepy mask who threw me off a bridge then you passed out and almost drowned. Luckily a fisherman brought us to shore in his boat.” Michael lied “I snuck you back to my car and even gave you a hoodie and a blanket out of the kindness of my heart so in the end I saved you.”

Jeremy looked down and blushed bright red as he registered what he was wearing. It was Michael’s favorite hoodie. The soft beautiful piece of fabric that he’d stared at longingly for months. He’d quietly wondered what it’d be like to curl up in his crushes’ clothing. He always resisted temptation whenever he’d seen the article draped over a chair, or on the floor, or resting atop Michael's dresser. He was scared of what might happen if he’d been caught wearing it. But now, Michael had willingly given him his favorite hoodie to wear. He felt goosebumps up his arms and his heart beating loudly. He was so thankful that the mask covered his face. Wait...shit the mask!

“You didn’t…” Jeremy hesitantly pointed to his face too nervous to finish his statement.

“What? Unmask you? No way I’m not some kind of crazy fan or anything.” Michael said mockingly “I’m not even sure you have fans.”

Ouch. Did Michael seriously still hate him after all that? Suddenly he remembered the events of the day, the masked man, Michael being held over the bridge, jumping, the water-

“Wait a minute.” Jeremy said as he collected his thoughts “I set you down on a roof and you somehow caught up with me and tried to like jump a criminal...what the fuck? You could have gotten hurt. Why did you interfere with my hero work?”

“Uhh because you clearly needed help. And it’s a good thing I did or you might have drowned.”

“You do realize that if you hadn’t interfered he wouldn’t have been able to throw you off a bridge right? And I wouldn’t have needed saving” Jeremy bit back, finally countering Michael’s sass with his own.

“Uhhh…” Michael hadn’t considered that. This really was all his fault. “Shit man, you’ve got a point.”

Jeremy smirked but then sighed. “Look I’m sorry that I…messed up so much today. I don’t blame you for hating me, I’m not much of a hero.” The Blue hero looked down. He felt so small under Michael’s gaze. He knew Michael hated The Blue Spider, hated  _ him.  _ Ever since that day in the basement Michal furrowed his brow and tensed every time The Blue Spider came up in conversation. His feelings on Jeremy’s hero side were crystal clear. 

“I…I don’t hate you.” Michael said quietly and Jeremy’s head snapped up. “I- ok I really didn’t like you before, I’ll admit that, but well...after today I guess I just I don’t know you’re…you’re alright I guess.” Michael’s face was slightly red when he met Jeremy’s eyes. A coward wouldn’t jump off a bridge and nearly drown just to save somebody. He didn’t even hesitate, which is what impressed Michael the most, as normally The Blue Spider didn’t just rush into situations, even when it was necessary. 

Jeremy was mystified. He was about to respond when- “ah ah AH-CHOO.” He sneezed into his mask. “Oh god this is disgusting. Ew ew ew it’s in my mask.” He whined then turned pink and looked at Michael who was wide eyed. “Uhhh I mean um…well that was undignified to say the least.” 

Michael threw his head back and laughed, Jeremy frowned for a moment then joined in. He couldn’t help it, Michael’s laugh was infectious. When they stopped Michael smiled at him.  _ He’s not so bad after all _ . Michael thought. He started getting a certain feeling in his stomach and frowned a little. It was butterflies, he’d only felt this way around Jeremy recently. Oh god, there was no way he was developing a crush on  _ The Blue Spider.  _ He had  _ just  _ started to not hate him. Stupid hormones. 

“Are you still cold?” Michael asked to shake himself out of his thoughts. 

“Oh uhh no. Thanks for the sweatshirt and blanket by the way.” 

“Don’t mention it.” Michael blushed again at the gratitude, what was wrong with him?

“I won’t.” The Blue Spider responded cheekily. “And you shouldn’t either, if bad guys thought we were close they might come after you.” His tone became serious for the last statement. Michael rolled his eyes.

“Yeah like I’m gonna tell everyone that I hung out with the Super Furry.”

“That is a ridiculous rumor and nothing more.” Jeremy sputtered out.

“Suuuure it is.” Michael winked at him. “Don’t worry man, your secret’s safe with me.”

“Ugh. Anyway, I should probably get going.” Jeremy opened the car door and got out taking in their surroundings. “Where are we?” He asked.

“The parking lot of some abandoned building.” Michael said as he got out of the car. “I can drive you back into the city if you want.” 

“Thank you but you’ve done enough Uhh…” Jeremy motioned as if asking for a name.

“Michael Mell.” Michael stuck out his hand to shake the hero’s. Jeremy shook it feeling warm as he gripped his best friend’s hand. 

“Thank you for everything Michael Mell.” 

“Same to you Blue Spider.” 

“That’s  _ The _ Blue Spider to you.”

Michael rolled his eyes again. Jeremy was about to take off when Michael cleared his throat, Jeremy turned around.

“My sweatshirt?” Michael quirked a brow.

“Oh right sorry.” Jeremy pulled it off and handed it to Michael. “Stay out of trouble Michael Mell.”

“With all do respect I’m a bit of a rebel so…” Michael smirked challengingly at his spider savior “I can’t promise anything.”

“Well then, I look forward to saving you in the future.” The Blue Spider smiled behind his mask then boldly added “you’re pretty handsome for a snarky troublemaker.” 

Michael’s entire face turned red as Jeremy disappeared into the night.  _ Why the fuck did I say that? _ He yelled in his head. He lectured himself inwardly but couldn’t help smiling, he did just flirt with his crush after all.

Michael shook his head as he got into his car and headed home. There was absolutely positively no way he was even remotely attracted to that super weirdo. Nope. Never. His face remained as red as his hoodie for the entire drive. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So glad I got this one out. Enjoy my sassy flirty sons.


	8. Never Trust School Buses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What are you doing here?” Red Widow demanded pointing at Jeremy. 
> 
> “It’s a trap!” Jeremy yelled out. Before Red Widow could question what he meant, smiley face stood up and started slowly walking toward him.

Jeremy really had to wonder how he ended up in situations like this. He was currently in the arms of his sworn enemy who had  _ definitely  _ just tried to flirt with him. It was a very confusing chain of events.

It had all started when Jeremy took the bus home from school. Usually one of his friends would give him a ride home after play rehearsal but he was skipping today. He’d wanted to stay but all his friends insisted that he go home and get rest since he’d been sneezing and coughing all day. Christine went full mother hen mode and waited in front of the auditorium doors. 

“Christine wha- ah-CHOO!” 

“Not another step Heere.” Christine held a hand out.

“What are you doing?” Jeremy asked groggily wiping his nose on his sleeve. 

“Stopping you.” She crossed her arms. “You need to go home and rest.”

“Seriously? I told you at lunch I’m fine!” He sneezed three more times after finishing that sentence and groaned. He felt like ass all day, and at lunch all his friends pestered him about going home at the end of the day instead of going to play rehearsal. Jeremy had protested saying he was fine and could make it through the rest of the day. But now he felt even worse than he had before, despite this Jeremy was still determined to stay out of stubbornness. 

“Seriously. You need to go.” Christine glared at him with a serious tone. “Don’t make me get the others.”

Jeremy shuddered, he knew she wasn’t bluffing, his friends would do everything in their power to make him go home at this point. Rich, Jake, and Michael would all take turns carrying him. Brooke would definitely give him an earful. Jenna would googl his symptoms and tell him he was already half dead. Chloe would lovingly call him a dumbass. And Christine, well, he was eighty percent sure she was about to knock him out here and now and drag him to his house.

“Ugh fine, but if I don’t have my blocking down it’s on you.” Jeremy’s sentence ended with a series of coughs. Christine’s harsh glare softened.

“Do you want someone to give you a ride? I’m sure Michael wouldn’t mind.”

“No it’s ok I’ll just take the bus, you all need to stay for rehearsal.” Jeremy sniffled, he didn’t want to inconvenience anyone.

“Are you sure?” She asked voice laced with concern.

“Yeah I can survive the bus.”

Jeremy was starting to question that statement. The bus ride had been going fine until he felt a shiver up his spine. That’s when a loud clang sounded from the roof. Something had landed on top of the bus. The bus screeched to a halt and Jeremy’s face smacked against the seat in front of him. He rubbed his head as he looked forward and saw a cloaked figure in a creepy frowning mask standing on the hood of the vehicle. The masked fucker started banging on the windshield with a bat, Jeremy’s eyes widened as the bus driver screamed and the glass cracked.

He quickly sprung up from his seat and sprinted to the back of the bus, opened the emergency exit and shouted “Everyone out now!” The other students on board all ran past Jeremy as he held the door open. The bus driver opened the doors in the front and darted out, not bothering to check if any students were safe.  _ Never trust the bus driver in emergencies.  _ Jeremy thought to himself. The windshield shattered as Jeremy looked around to see if everyone had gotten off. He noticed a girl near the front still in her seat curled up into a fetal position. Jeremy ran to her, she was panicking. The girl had dark skin, long brown hair in braids, and a yellow jacket.

“Hey hey it’s gonna be ok.” He tried to sound soothing but it didn’t help that he was also panicked. “You need to get off the bus now.” 

Just then, the emergency hatch on the roof opened and another masked figure dropped in. This one had the same smiling mask as the man who’d attacked Michael. Jeremy wondered if it was the same person as the girl started to hyperventilate. He quickly grabbed her and ran towards the front. The frowning man was sitting in the driver’s seat starting up the engine. Jeremy dragged the braided girl to the still open front doors of the bus and apologized as he shoved her out.

He was about to exit himself when he stopped to sneeze three times. The frowner pulled a lever and shut the doors before slamming his foot on the gas. Jeremy fell backwards on the stairs. When he looked up he saw the smiling creep standing over him. The stranger tilted his head and Jeremy gulped. This cold was literally going to be the death of him. Smiley picked him up by his shirt collar and threw him into a nearby seat gripping Jeremy's shoulder and sitting down next to him.

Jeremy cursed in his head as he tried to think of a way out. The driver was speeding around New Jersey suburbs and Jeremy couldn't tell where the masked man was trying to go. His driving was absolutely nuts, he'd quickly turn down one street then back out of it halfway through and turn down another way. It was almost as if... _ The driver doesn't know where he’s going. _ This didn't exactly help Jeremy right now but at least he knew something. That had to be a step in the right direction right? That’s when he came to a disturbing realization, if they had just wanted the bus they would have thrown him off. They wanted  _ him. _

He turned to smiley man and shuddered as the scary mask stared back at him.

“Wh-what do you want with me?” he asked tentatively. 

Neither the smiley or frowny man answered.  _ Ok maybe they don’t want me specifically.  _ Jeremy thought trying to calm himself down.  _ They just want a hostage...wait...stealing a large bright colored vehicle in broad daylight, sporadically driving it around, and taking a hostage? They want to be noticed!  _ Jeremy’s eyes lit up as he figured it out. But who did these people want to be noticed by?

Suddenly something heavy landed on the roof again with a loud thud. Judging by how smiley and frowny looked up in surprise Jeremy guessed whoever was on the roof wasn’t with them. Red Widow jumped down through the open hatch on and stood triumphantly. Then he looked around, made eye contact with Jeremy and was clearly taken aback.

“What are you doing here?” Red Widow demanded pointing at Jeremy. Michael swore to himself that he was never letting his best friend ride the bus ever again.

“It’s a trap!” Jeremy yelled out. Before Red Widow could question what he meant, smiley face stood up and started slowly walking toward him. 

The superhero shot out a web sticking it to the man’s torso trapping his upper body. No one noticed as Jeremy rose from his seat with his heaviest textbook. He slammed it against the back of smiley man’s head and the masked creeper went down. He would never complain about his history book being too heavy ever again. Michael stared blankly at him surprised at his crush’s boldness. That’s when frowner stepped hard on the gas again. Jeremy fell forward and Red Widow caught him in one arm, using the other to tightly grip a seat.

From where he stood in the aisle of the bus, Michael couldn’t aim a web at their crazed driver. His first instinct was to hold Jeremy protectively. He didn’t want to set the boy down in a seat, afraid that the masked man would suddenly stop, slamming his poor defenseless friend against the seat in front of him.  _ Why don’t these things have seatbelts?  _ Michael wondered then an idea popped into his head. He carefully guided Jeremy into a seat and shot a web around him to keep his player two in place. 

“Stay here kid, I’ll go have a word with our driver.” Michael let go of the seat he’d been gripping and started moving forward.

Right then the bus screeched to a halt, Jeremy stayed put thanks to the web but Red Widow was launched forward. He landed on the ground right next to the driver’s seat. Frowny was climbing out of the hole he’d made in the window, he gave Michael a little salute before he vanished. The hero groaned and rubbed his head, when he looked back down the aisle of the bus he saw that smiley has gotten up, his upper body was still all webbed up but his legs were working just fine. Smiley gave him a nod as he jumped out of the open back of the bus.  _ Fucking creepy assholes.  _ Michael thought as he slowly rose to his feet and looked back at Jeremy.

“Um R-red Widow?” Jeremy’s voice was shaky as he looked past the hero in horror.

“Yeah?” Red Widow turned around and swore under his breath. 

Frowny face had parked the bus right at the top of a steep dead end street. It was a huge down hill road with a small wooded area at the end of it. Michael and Jeremy remembered riding their bikes down it in the summer and their sleds in the winter. They also remembered crashing into those trees. A lot. The bus was starting to tip forward. Michael needed a plan, he couldn’t just wing it this time.

Michael could grab Jeremy and run out the back of the bus but that would cause a huge crash and possibly an explosion when the large metal death trap hit the trees. He might be able to stop the bus with his super strength, but he hadn’t tested his strength on any vehicle before, let alone a fucking bus, and now definitely wasn’t the time. He used his supervision to hone in on the trees at the end of the street looking for something, anything to inspire an idea. That’s when it came to him, an idea every spider has had since they came into existence: trap it in a web.

Wasting no time, Red Widow leapt out of the hole in the windshield and ran at super speed to the end of the street. He rapidly started weaving a massive web between the trees. Michael kept adding layer upon layer shooting web after web as quickly as he could. Luckily his brain sped up with him and he started trying to crunch the numbers on how much webbing he would need to stop the bus without a crash. Unluckily Michael had never been too good at math, but he’d supported people in his single layer webs before so he just had to make...a lot of webs. He counted layers as he made them. Michael couldn’t believe how much webbing he was using, he’d never used this much before and he’d never gone this fast. He was pushing his limits. He made three hundred layers and turned back to see the bus start rolling down the hill in slow motion.  _ Three hundred will have to do  _ Michael thought as he raced back up the hill to rescue his favorite person in the universe. 

Jeremy couldn’t believe his eyes, “Did that piece of shit just leave me here?” He thought out loud. The teen struggled against the webs holding him, trying to use his super strength to get out as the bus tipped forward and started heading down the hill. That’s when a black and red blur ran in through the open windshield, scooped up Jeremy, and jumped out the back. Jeremy blinked in surprise as he looked up to see that Red Widow was holding him bridal style and...wearing his backpack? The super spider wasn’t looking at Jeremy though, he was looking forward. Jeremy followed his gaze and watched as the bus hastily rolled down the hill but stopped at the end of the street without a crash. It was caught in a web. Jeremy couldn’t help but smile, that was brilliant. 

“Hang on.” Red Widow said as he suddenly kicked into super speed again. Jeremy closed his eyes and wrapping his arms tighter around the hero’s neck. 

“You can open your eyes now.” Red Widow told him thirty seconds later with a slight chuckle in his voice. Jeremy obeyed and looked out seeing that they were now on a flat roof somewhere. 

“You can also get down now too...though I really don’t mind holding a cute guy like you in my arms.” Michael wanted to smack himself, was he really flirting right now? His best friend was probably panicking and he thought  _ hitting on him _ was a good idea. Sometimes his stupid mouth went faster than his stupid brain.

“I um uh huh what?” Jeremy sputtered out completely red faced. He never really got hit on by anyone, the only time it ever happened was when he had the squip, and even with Keanu Reeves telling him what to do he was a mess. 

“Sorry this isn’t the best time for pick up lines.” Red Widow said sheepishly setting Jeremy down. 

Jeremy was about to say something then stopped himself once he processed what the spider hero had said. “Was that a fucking pun?” 

“Damn I guess it was.” They both let out an awkward laugh.

“Sorry for running you up here without any warning.” The hooded hero rubbed the back of his head in an insecure way. “I just figured the police and reporters would show up soon and I thought you might not wanna deal with that ya know?”

Jeremy blinked in surprise, his mouth fell open a little in shock. Was the spider dumbass actually being  _ considerate _ ? Though after today Jeremy wouldn’t think of him as a spider dumbass anymore. His plan to stop the bus was nothing short of  amazing.

“Oh uh thanks.” Jeremy responded dumbly. 

“I also wanted to apologize for the last time we met. I realized that I hadn’t actually asked what your friend looked like before I just...left you behind? I think I just figured I had already saved him or something. I did ask around for a Michael but no one had seen him. No reported casualties either, so is he ok?” Michael remembered Jeremy’s rant to him one night about the whole situation, about why he was so angry with Red Widow in the first place. The guilt had been crushing. Lying about looking for himself also stung a bit but he’d have to bare it. 

“I um...it’s it’s ok. I mean it’s not  _ ok _ , like that still sucked but you didn’t have to formally apologize or anything.” Jeremy was struggling to find the right words to say. “I mean it’s really cool that you did though, it kinda like shows that you’ve...grown as a hero or something.” His eyes widened and he quickly added. “OH and Michael is fine, turns out you had already saved him so I guess you were right.” 

“Good I’m glad he’s ok.” Michael let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “So...what did you mean when you said ‘it’s a trap’?”

“Oh god did I actually say that?” Jeremy groaned. “Can’t believe I’m Admiral freaking Ackbar.” He blushed a little, slightly embarrassed by his geeky side. He’d mostly embraced it after the squip, but he still had moments like this especially around new people. Michael found the comment adorable but didn’t dare say that out loud. 

“It wasn’t like a trap exactly, they just clearly wanted to be noticed.” Jeremy elaborated. “Like they stole a freaking school bus, purposely took a hostage, and then drove it crazily around a populated suburb. They definitely wanted one of the heroes to show up.”

Red Widow nodded, despite how dense his friend could be, Jeremy had always been smarter than he let himself believe. He had a knack for observation, but only when it came to people he didn’t know. It’s like the closer he was to someone the less he could see the obvious stuff. Like Rich’s lingering touch starved hugs, or Chloe’s sometimes sad far away look whenever she zoned out, or Michael’s big honking crush. Michael was the opposite, he noticed things a lot more once he got close to people. He’d picked up on the little behaviors and ticks their whole group had. 

“Do you know why they took you specifically?” The red and black spider asked trying to keep his voice calm. His blood boiled at the idea of bad guys targeting Jeremy. It’s part of the reason he had a secret identity to begin with- so those he cared about wouldn’t get hurt. 

“I don’t think they wanted me  _ specifically _ . I think they wanted to take the whole bus load, but I opened the back door and held it for everyone. Then after I helped out this scared girl they kinda took off and parked me in a seat. I guess they figured one hostage was better than none.” Jeremy looked down and fidgeted with his hands, he didn’t really want to boast in his civilian form, he felt awkward enough doing it as a hero.

“Wow. You really are heroic kid.” Red Widow said with pride. “You should get a costume and join the club, you could be  _ The Evacuator. _ ”

“I-I mean I’m really not the hero type!” Jeremy squeaked out way too quickly. “I uh I don’t think I can pull off the spandex look anyway.” He backtracked. 

“I beg to differ.” Red Widow replied in smooth tone of voice. Jeremy sputtered then coughed a few times. “Are you ok?” The hero asked him.

“I’m fine, just have this stupid cold.” Jeremy responded sniffling. 

“I was going to head back to the bus to explain things to the police and clean up, but I want to give you a lift home first.” 

“That’s not necessary, I can walk.”

“You sure?” I mean we’re kind of on the roof of an apartment building and no offense but I don’t think you can walk down the building.” Red Widow sassed him.

“Uh there’s a door that leads into the building over here.” Jeremy shot back walking towards it. He twisted the knob and realized it was locked. “Ok nevermind.” Red Widow laughed loudly.

“I swear it’s no trouble just tell me the address and I can take you there.”

“Sorry but I was taught never to give out my address to strangers.” Red Widow laughed again.

“What’s your name?”

“Jeremy, why?”

“Well, now we’re not strangers.” Michael smiled underneath his mask. 

“Ah I see you’ve found a loophole. Guess I can’t get grounded for telling you where I live now.” Jeremy smiled, letting go of his tension. He did need to get home and Red Widow was currently the fastest way to get there. So he told the hero his address then made a request.

“Um can I ride on your back this time.” Jeremy looked away and blushed lightly then sharply took in a breath when he realized how wrong that sounded. “Oh god I didn’t mean it like  _ that  _ I just- it’s a lot easier to hang on if I’m in your back.” That and being held bridal style was a little too intimate.

“You just want an excuse to wrap your legs around me.” Red Widow joked.

“Oh shut up.” 

Red Widow handed Jeremy his backpack then knelt down so that the boy could get on his back. Jeremy shouldered his bag then climbed on.

“I put that history book back in your bag by the way.” Red Widow said as he stood up. “That thing weighs a ton, how do you manage carrying it around all the time?”

_ It’s easier with super strength _ Jeremy thought. “At least it’s good for hitting bad guys.” He said.

“Ah yes, the secret intended purpose for all textbooks.” Jeremy giggled at the hero’s joke. “You ready?” 

“Yep.” The pale boy tightened his grip around Red Widow’s torso. Michael practically melted beneath his suit. He took off stopping in front of Jeremy’s house a minute later.

“You have arrived at your destination.” Red Widow impersonated a robotic GPS voice.

“Thank you for everything.” Jeremy replied laughing as he lowered himself down. He smiled up at the hero. 

“Thank you for not hating me.” 

“Thank you for giving me a reason not to.”

“What is this a thank you battle?” Michael laughed.

“Yes and I won so there.” Jeremy stuck his tongue out at him. God he was so fucking adorable.

“Goodbye Jeremy.” Red Widow said as he started backing up into the street. “I hope you don’t need saving again anytime soon, but if you do I will protect you. Can’t let anyone mess up that pretty face of yours can I?”

Jeremy’s cheeks flared up as Red Widow sped away from his house. He stood on his lawn for a few minutes trying to process what just happened before he turned around and went inside. 

Part of him really wanted to go out and find Red Widow as The Blue Spider. He felt they needed to have a hero to hero talk. He had a new found respect for the other spider and had realized that they shouldn’t be squabbling like idiots every time they ran into each other. They should be working together. 

But as soon as Jeremy entered the house a wave of fatigue hit him, it was a combination of his shitty cold and the adrenaline wearing off. This was probably a conversation they should have when Jeremy wasn’t likely to sneeze into his mask or doze off. So, he headed to bed his tired mind still reeling over his eventful bus ride. He totally didn’t think about how muscular Red Widow felt when he had his arms and legs wrapped around him. Not at all. Never ever. 

 

* * *

Jeremy woke up a few hours later to his dad calling to him from downstairs.

“Jeremy dinner’s ready!” Jeremy groaned and slowly got up from his bed, he was hungry but still tired. At least his cold seemed to be gone, normally he would have been sick for weeks. His powers must have given him an improved immune system. He made his way down stairs to the table. His dad had insisted on them eating together every night now, part of his effort to be a better father. He was also making meals more which could be good or bad depending on the night. Mr. Heere has never been the best cook but he was willing to learn. Tonight they were having lasagna, one of Jeremy’s dad’s specialties.

They sat across from each other and made small talk for a little while. It was nice, Jeremy enjoyed having a real dad again, even if he didn’t show it often.

“Sooo where were you last night?” Mr. Heere asked between bites of his lasagna. 

“In bed.” Jeremy stated shoving a fork full of food in his mouth. He didn’t enjoy lying to his dad, especially with their new dynamic, but he couldn’t tell him he was off saving the day.

“Ok.” Mr. Heere paused for a moment, putting down his fork. “It’s just that…I went to your room to tell you that dinner was ready and you weren’t there. I figured you were just at Michael’s, but then I thought I heard something in your room later on. I opened the door and you were already in bed.”

“Oh.” Jeremy responded dumbly. He started sweating not really knowing what to say. He’d snuck back in through his window last night and vaguely remembered knocking something over. Jeremy assumed his dad was asleep so he wasn’t as careful as he normally would have been. 

“Is everything alright son? You know you can tell me if something’s going on.” Mr. Heere let out a breath. “You can tell me if that...squip thing is acting up again.”

Michael had explained the squip to Jeremy’s dad when he’d been in the hospital. Jeremy and his dad had talked about it once since then, his dad didn’t fully understand it, but he told Jeremy to come to him if it ever activated again. His dad and Michael would take care of him. It made Jeremy’s stomach flutter happily to know he had people he could count on, even when he felt he didn’t deserve it. 

“No. It’s off permanently.” Jeremy said with a shaky voice, he was getting uncomfortable. Admittedly he could sometimes still here the squip’s voice now and then but he wasn’t sure if it was the squip itself or his memories of the twisted quantum computer. It never said anything new so he liked to think it was just memories. He hoped it was just memories. 

“Good.” Jeremy’s dad picked his fork back up and dug into the lasagna. “So why did you sneak back in through your window?”

Jeremy nearly choked, he quickly downed some water before speaking again. 

“I uh...I forgot my key and I thought you were sleeping I didn’t wanna wake you so I just um broke in I guess?” Jeremy was the worst liar.

“Let me get this straight.” Mr. Heere said in a very parental tone. “You climbed into your second story bedroom window because you didn’t want to inconvenience me?” 

“Uh yes?” 

“Jeremy that’s insane. Please just wake me up next time, I’m way more worried about you getting hurt than losing sleep ok?”

“Ok.” Jeremy nearly sighed in relief, this conversation was finally over-

“How did you get up there?”

“Wh-What?” The universe clearly hated Jeremy today.

“How did you get up to your window?” His dad repeated slowly. 

Jeremy tried to think of a logical answer, there were a couple trees in their yard but they were nowhere near his window. They had a ladder in their garage but if he had used it, the ladder would have still been there in the morning when his dad went to work. Normal humans couldn’t just scale a flat building. He needed to try and come up with a believable lie.

That’s when Jeremy thought of something absolutely devious and awful. He was going to hate himself for this. He shoved a huge fork full of lasagna into his mouth and swallowed too quickly on purpose. Jeremy started choking. He hoped his dad’s parental instincts would kick in.

“Jeremy!” His dad jumped up from the other end of the table and ran over to him. He smacked on Jeremy’s back a few times but nothing happened. Then, he picked his son up and performed the Heimlich maneuver. A chunk of half chewed lasagna launched itself out of Jeremy’s mouth and landed on the table. 

“You alright?” Mr. Heere asked. Jeremy nodded. “Good, you need to learn to chew your food son.” He chuckled and ruffled Jeremy’s hair then went to clear their plates.

Jeremy sighed in relief, his distraction worked, his dad dropped the subject for now. He would have to start coming up with more convincing lies and be even more careful when sneaking back in. This was way too close a call.

* * *

Mr. Heere had thought about grounding his son for sneaking in and lying, but decided against it. He started washing the dishes and sighed to himself. He remembered seeing the news report last night. Someone had captured footage of The Blue Spider jumping off a bridge to save a dark skinned teen that Mr. Heere has recognized as his son’s best friend.

Michael and Mr. Heere had a deep bond that formed when Jeremy had been squipped. At the time they were the only people who truly seemed to care about the young Jewish boy. They cared enough to save him from himself. He admired how devoted Michael was to his Jeremy and well, he wasn’t an idiot, he knew those boys were absolutely enamored with each other. He’d always liked Michael so he definitely approved. 

He also knew about their new expanded circle of friends and he was happy for his son and future son-in-law. But despite Michael and Jeremy having new friends, Mr. Heere knew that there were only a few people who would jump off a bridge that quickly to save Michael Mell.

Those people being himself, Michael’s moms, and Jeremy Heere. Considering the size and shape of The Blue Spider, Mr. Heere had ruled out Savannah and Jasmin. 

He knew who was behind the mask the minute he saw the hero jumping towards the water without any hesitation. Honestly, he’d been suspicious since the reports first came in about the checkered suit Spider-Man. He remembered giving Jeremy that suit and highly doubted there were any more of those things being made or sold.

He didn’t want to confront his son on the hero business just yet, he wanted Jeremy to tell him. He wanted his son to trust him with the big things in his life. Honestly he was beyond proud of Jeremy’s work as hero. He was also beyond worried, but he’d seen from the news reports that Jeremy could handle himself. He only wished his son trusted him more, but he couldn’t blame Jeremy for not doing so, he’d been a lousy father.

But he was changing that, little by little he was becoming the father Jeremy deserved. He smiled to himself as he finished the dishes and turned off the light in the kitchen. 

“Uh dad?” Jeremy said fidgeting with the hem of his sweater when his dad came out of the kitchen.

“Yeah Jeremy?” Mr. Heere’s eyes lit up, was this it?

“I just wanted to say uh…” Jeremy hesitated a little unsure of what to say. “Thanks for saving me.” 

“Anytime son.” Mr. Heere ruffled his son’s hair and kissed his head. “Goodnight Jeremy.”

“Goodnight dad.” Jeremy said as he started climbing the stairs then stopped after a few steps. “I love you” the teen said quietly before finishing his ascent.

Mr. Heere smiled to himself. One day Jeremy would tell him everything. For now he was satisfied knowing what a truly amazing person his son was turning out to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t know how I wanted to write Red Widow saving Jeremy until I started working on this chapter, and then I was like “bus!” 
> 
> Originally I was going to end the chapter with Jeremy going to sleep but then I came up with that cute Mr. Heere scene. I’ve had the idea of Jeremy’s dad figuring him out since the beginning but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it until now. Hope ya’ll enjoy, I’ve loved reading everyone’s comments so far! :)
> 
> Edit: I also didn’t give Mr. Heere a first name because it feels wrong? Like it’s some kind of unspoken rule that Mr. Heere and Mr. Reyes don’t have first names, I’ve read fics where Michael’s moms get names and Mr. Heere is still just Mr. Heere. Plus I couldn’t think of a name that worked soooo....I might name him in a later chapter.


	9. The Vile Crocodile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael never thought it would end like this, getting his head bitten off by a giant mutant crocodile man.

The Blue Spider was out on patrol looking for trouble while simultaneously keeping an eye out for Red Widow. Jeremy wanted to apologize and try to make amends with his fellow hero. He’d seen when saving Michael how jumping in without a plan was sometimes necessary. And he hoped Red Widow felt the same about planning ahead after the bus incident. Jeremy also prayed the other hero wouldn’t be too smug, it would make apologizing a lot more difficult.

Just as he was swinging from one building to the next a loud rumble shook the city. Jeremy just barely managed to land on the roof of the building as he felt the world moving beneath him. 

The Blue Spider looked down at the street and saw large clouds of dust riding as people screamed. When the dust cleared Jeremy couldn’t believe his eyes, there was a ten foot tall green crocodile man standing above an open sewer grate. It had to be another mutant. The mutant stood breathing heavily as an older woman raised her phone to take a picture, just as the flash went off the lizard man screamed and swung at the woman knocking her down. Crocodile guy stood over the teen raising his fist to strike again.

Jeremy quickly swung down to try and intervene but a black and red blur sped off with the civilian. Jeremy smiled as he saw Red Widow save the citizen. He turned his attention to the mutant who sneered at him and charged. The hero quickly shot out webs and wrapped the reptilian man’s torso in white sticky webbing, causing him to fall down. The red and black hero came back and acknowledged his fellow spider.

“Hey, Blue Spider it’s been a while.”

“Yeah, listen I want to apologize-” Jeremy started but Red Widow put up a hand to stop him.

“I need to apologize too but let’s save the day first alright?” 

“Sounds good to me.” The Blue Spider gave a thumbs up. “Guess this is our first major super villain.”

“Or misunderstood mutant.” Red Widow countered. “I think we should try talking to him first.”

The Blue Spider nodded and both heroes approached the crocodile mutant together. 

“Hey man, it’s ok.” Michael said cautiously. “We’re mutants too we can help you.”

The wording caught Jeremy a little off guard, he’d never really considered himself a mutant despite the ya know- mutant spider powers. It made him feel a little stupid now, he’d obviously been a mutant since the bite but somehow it didn’t seem like the right description for him or Red Widow. Of course he didn’t voice this train of thought, now wasn’t the time for him to ramble and over analyze. But then again he was always doing one of the two, or both-

The Blue Spider’s thought process was interrupted by Red Widow looking at him expectantly, oh right they were supposed to be helping Crocodile man.

“Uh yeah.” The blue hero agreed. “It took a lot of getting used to but we use our powers to help people now and maybe you could too? Or not, but either way we can help you out.”

The crocodile man growled back at them as he continued to struggle in the webs. 

“Can he even understand us?” The Blue Spider half whispered to Red Widow who shrugged. In response the crocodile dude snapped his jaws at the two heroes and glared at them. “I’m going to take that a yes...or maybe a no?” 

“Either way it doesn’t seem like he can communicate with words.” Red Widow stated matter of factly. “Maybe we should take the webs off and see what he does? Actions speak louder than words after all.”

“No way, he’s definitely not calm enough for that.”

“Would you be calm if you were tied up and had the head of a crocodile?”

“I mean no, but we can’t just let him destroy the city.” Jeremy stroked his chin as he thought. Then an idea struck him. “What if we took him to a more remote location and tried calming him down there? That way he can’t hurt anyone!”

“Wow that’s actually really smart.” Red Widow said dumbfounded as to how the other spider came up with such a brilliant idea so quickly. Wasn’t he supposed to be the fast one? 

“What, are you surprised?” The Blue Spider said teasingly “I can be smart too.”

“You think I’m smart?” Red Widow smirked beneath his mask.

Just as The Blue Spider was about to respond their banter was cut short by the crocodile mutant ripping through the webbing. He rose to his feet, spread out his arms and roared at the spiders before charging at Jeremy. 

“Look out!” Red Widow shouted as he used his super speed to run over to The Blue Spider to get him out of the way. Unfortunately the force from his speed caused them both to fall over in the street, Red Widow landing painfully on The Blue Spider’s chest. Jeremy swore his super hearing picked up the snap of a camera somewhere. They quickly rose to their feet, not having time to feel embarrassed or acknowledge what had happened. Each one took fighting stances as the crazed crocodile turned around and glared at them. 

Instead of charging the croc lifted up a small car and threw it at the spiders.

“Holy shit!”

“What the fuck?!” 

The heroes swore in unison as Red Widow grabbed The Blue Spider’s arm and ran to dodge the attack. The car hit the pavement with a loud crash and the car alarm blaring through the air. The heroes looked on in shock for a moment.

“We have to get him out of the city.” The Blue Spider spoke once he got his barings. 

“How?” 

“I don’t know but we can’t just-”

The hero was cut off by another car hurtling towards them as Red Widow sped them to safety once more. So now the mutant was just going to throw cars at them, fantastic. That’s when Jeremy got another idea.

“Do you think if you ran at him with full force you’d be able to carry him?” 

“I’m not sure? I’ve never carried someone that big and...mutated before. I don’t know how much my strength could handle.” Red Widow answered honestly. “But I’m willing to try.”

“Ok on three. One-”

“Two three!” Red Widow spoke quickly as he ran forward and lunged at the bad guy. Michael used as much strength as he could to try and lift the crocodile up and for a moment it worked, until the asshole punched his back and he fell mid sprint, the giant crocodile man landing on top of him. 

“Red!” The Blue Spider screamed out in panic. Even with his super speed the red hero hadn’t managed to get that far, Jeremy could still see him farther down the street. He swung over to help as fast as he could. The crocodile man was clutching his head and sitting on Red Widow, not yet realizing the position he was in. That’s when The Blue Spider swung down from a street light and kicked the villain in the face, causing the mutant to fall back.

The Blue Spider landed on both feet and reached out a hand to help Red Widow up.

“Are you alright?”

“Not gonna lie, that hurt like a bitch. But I’ll be fine, I’ve got a healing factor.”

“Really? I do too.”

“Nice.” 

The crocodile growled, the spiders quickly wrapped him up in webbing to buy time while they thought of a plan.

“So we can’t just run him out of here...unless we knock him out first.” Red Widow said already forming a plan. “I can distract him while you go into camouflage mode and hit him with something heavy from behind.”

“Good plan but what am I supposed to hit him with?”

“Honestly I’m not sure, you kicking him in the face is definitely effective but you’d need a lot more force behind it to knock him out.” 

Jeremy pondered this for a moment then looked over at their struggling foe, he saw that the webbing was starting to come undone. They didn’t have time to overthink this. 

“We’re running out of time.” The Blue Spider stated. “I’ll figure it out, go distract him and try not to let him do too much damage to the city.”

“Right. I’ll just keep wrapping him in webs when he starts getting too destructive.” He looked around and noticed a few people cowering on the sidewalk. “And I’ll evacuate the civilians.” 

“I can help evacuate while I look for something heavy to hit him with.”

Michael nodded then he sped off toward the crocodile mutant man, as soon as the ruffian broke loose from his webbing he shot more webs out and wrapped them around the guy again.

Jeremy swung over to the few citizens he saw and ushered them out of the street, he started opening the doors to businesses and telling everyone to either stay away from the front of the building or to exit out the back. Michael picked up and carried away as many civilians as he could before the crocodile beast broke through his webbing. He sped around the vicious mutant and webbed him again, running into many of the other buildings on the street to repeat the message about exiting out the back.

Michael then returned his attention to the crazed croc as he broke free once more. So, he naturally webbed him again. 

“Seriously man, I could do this all day so you might as well give up now.” Red Widow taunted him, hoping to get the mutant to focus solely on him. He still wasn’t sure if this guy understood him at all but he could at least hear sounds coming from the red clad hero’s mouth.

The crocodile man growled in response, this time breaking the webbing faster than he had previously. Michael shot out webs again but this time the crocodile picked up a manhole cover using it to block the webs.  _ Oh fuck he’s learning. _ The teen found this both fascinating and terrifying as the big crocodile man picked up another car and chucked it at him. He quickly ran out of the way and turned to see the crocodile man lifting a parking meter out of the ground and swinging it around like a weapon.

The vile crocodile ran towards Red Widow holding the parking meter like a bat, of course the hero sped away. The cycle repeated for a few minutes, the mutant would run at him and Michael would speed out of the way. Michael sighed, this guy had a flat learning curve.  _ At least he’s distracted.  _ Michael squinted as he noticed how oddly stiff the mutant crocodile’s movements were. Maybe this man was having a hard time adjusting to his mutation, or this crocodile? He couldn’t be sure whether this creature had started out as a man or a crocodile. 

Just then Michael heard a loud “What the fuck?” and turned to see Jake Dillinger who had stopped in the middle of crossing the street to stare confused at the site before him. 

That’s when the crocodile bastard decided to play dirty, he lifted up the parking meter in one hand twisting his torso backward with his arm as he threw the object like a javelin.  _ SHIT!  _ Michael instinctually sped towards Jake to save him, carrying him a street over and making it back just in time- to get hit in the face with a parking meter. Of course he accidentally stopped running right in the trajectory path of the god damn parking meter.

He swore loudly as he fell to the ground and could barely register the loud fast stomping coming his way. The crocodile man jumped on top of Red Widow, pinning his legs to the ground. The ruthless mutant snapped his jaws and Michael held up his hand to the bottom of the crocodile’s jaw to keep his teeth away. But the pressure of holding back the villain's head proved to be too much pressure even for super strength as the crocodile lowered down snapping his jaws open and closed getting closer and closer to Michael’s face and throat.

Michael never thought it would end like this, getting his head bitten off by a giant mutant crocodile man. One thought angrily crossed through his mind as he stared at the sharp teeth of his attacker:  _ where the fuck is blue?! _

* * *

****As soon as Jeremy informed and evacuated everyone he could he went into camouflage mode and started looking around for an object that could potentially knock out their enemy. He paused as he looked at a small car, pondering it for a second but then shook his head. He hadn’t fully tested his super strength but he highly doubted he could lift a freaking car. Then again, he didn’t used to think mutant powers were real so it could be possible- 

No. He didn’t have time to overthink, he had to act.

He watched for a moment as Red Widow distracted the beast, webbing him up once more, Then to his amazement, the crocodile man lifted a manhole cover to use as a shield. Only to toss it aside and throw a car instead. Back to basics. 

Jeremy eyed the manhole cover, he could probably lift one, and it should be heavy enough to knock the crazed mutant unconscious. But he’d need to use one that wasn’t covered in webbing, that way there was no padding and the large heavy metal would make direct contact with the crocodile’s head. 

So, Jeremy found the nearest manhole cover and carefully began pulling it up, and sliding it off of the hole it covered, not wanting to make too much noise. He looked up to see how their plan was going and inwardly gasped at seeing the giant mutant crocodile welding a parking meter and swinging it at Red Widow, who instantly sped away each time. Then he thought he heard footsteps behind him, it was probably just his super hearing picking up on someone a few blocks over, nothing to worry about. 

“What the fuck?” came the unmistakable booming voice of Jake Dillinger. Jeremy turned around in horror, dropping the manhole cover so as not to bring attention to himself. 

That’s when everything seemed to happen in slow motion. 

He saw the parking meter fly through the air heading for Jake, before Jeremy could even move to protect him, a black and red blur scoped up his friend. Jeremy sighed in relief but that was cut short by Red Widow running back and getting nailed in the face by the parking meter. The crocodile jumping on and pining his fellow hero to the ground and snapping his jaws dangerously close to Red Widow’s face. Holy shit- was he actually going to eat him?!

Jeremy quickly charged over with the manhole cover, still in camouflage but not even bothering to be sneaky, his steps were loud and his breathing was heavy. Luckily the crocodile didn’t even notice as he was too focused on his potential victim. As soon as he was close enough, Jeremy swung a loud clang sounding as he hit the crocodile’s head. The crocodile man slowly turned his head just as Jeremy swung again, knocking the mutant off of Red Widow. The crocodile growled so of course Jeremy hit him with the manhole cover a third time, this time he did so much more forcefully and well...he may have broken the guy’s head open. He heard a loud crack with the impact. As soon as he heard this, The Blue Spider turned away from the sight in horror, dropping his makeshift weapon. What had he done?

“Oh my god did I kill him?” The Blue Spider asked shakily. 

“I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that.” Red Widow said sounding shocked as he sat up staring at the crocodile man. “It-it’s a robot.”

“What?!” The Blue Spider spun on his heels and noticed the gash on the crocodile’s head opened up to reveal wires and circuit boards. “What the fuck.” He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. Well the good news was he wasn’t a murderer. He wasn’t really sure if the crocodile man being a robot was bad news. 

“Hey are you ok?” Red Widow asked as he stood up, his voice laced with concern.

“I feel like I should be asking you that.” The Blue Spider let out a shaky awkward laugh. “You’re the one who got hit in the face with a fucking parking meter.”

“And almost eaten.” Red Widow added laughing with him in relief. 

“Can robots even eat people?” 

“Dude I have no idea but it definitely would have maimed me. They continued to laugh as the police arrived. 

* * *

After explaining their bizarre encounter to the police, the two heroes swung off together. They both landed on a tall empty rooftop so that they could properly talk things out. Unfortunately, neither of them knew how to start this conversation.

“So…” Red Widow awkwardly began, The Blue Spider looked at him expectantly but he didn’t actually form a sentence. They were both terrible when it came to conflict due to their anxiety issues. A full minute of awkward silence went by as they locked eyes. Then they just streamed out apologies.

“I’M SORRY!” they both shouted simultaneously.

“You were right, sometimes rushing into a situation is the only way to get things done.” The Blue Spider squawked. “But I was also really impressed by seeing how you can take your time with things and think up a plan before blindly rushing in.”

“Dude you’re the one who’s right!” Red Widow all but yelled across the rooftop. “Rushing into a situation is great and all and it was amazing to see you do that, but having a plan is a lot more effective in a lot of situations!” 

“Ok but your strategy today was brilliant!”

“I would never have come up with any of that without you!”

They both stopped rambling and stared at each other. Then the two burst out laughing. 

“Oh man why didn’t we team up sooner?” Red Widow said clutching his side as he laughed.

“Because we’re both idiots apparently!” The Blue Widow grinned beneath his mask. “But seriously, I’m ridiculously sorry for getting in your way on purpose in the past and messing things up.”

“I’m sorry too since I did the exact same shit.” Red Widow rubbed the back of his head. “And I’m sorry for starting the rumor that you’re a furry.” 

“That was you?” The Blue Spider shouted, sounding serious for a second before he started laughing again. He couldn’t help it, the whole situation was just so ridiculous. It took a few more minutes of the two howling to regain their composure. 

“So, friends?” The Blue Spider extended a hand for Red Widow to shake. The other hero took it immediately.

“Super friends.”

“Pft. Seriously a super friends reference?” 

“Look we both know we’re dorks so why hide it?” Red Widow said confidently. “We both dress up as Spider-Man for Christ’s sake.”

“Point taken.” The Blue Spider chuckled. He noticed that they were still shaking hands so he tried to pull his away but Red Widow’s grip tightened. Jeremy looked up at him in surprise.

“Does this mean we’re...partners now?” Red Widow asked seriously as he looked down at their hands.  _ Wait what?  _ Jeremy screamed in his own head. 

“In what sense?” Jeremy asked nervously.

“In the crime fighting sense?” Michael looked up at the other hero confused.

“Oh! Yes of course!” The hero in blue chuckled nervously as he nodded. 

“Wait did you think I meant like romantic partners?” The hooded spider tried and failed to contain the little laugh that came out. 

“Uhh”

“Because I won’t lie, you do look good in that costume but I don’t even know what your face looks like...or like anything else about you, so let’s pump the breaks on dating ok?” Red Widow teased him. “I know my charm is irresistible but you’ll just have to try and be strong.” 

“What charm?” The Blue Spider mocked.

“Oh how you wound me! But seriously dude, do you realize how awesome it is to have someone I can relate to about this stuff?” Michael said excitedly 

“Uhh yeah because I’m going through the same thing!” 

The two spider heroes sat on the rooftop together for hours talking about their experiences with their powers, how they both got bitten by weird spiders, and well- pretty much everything they hadn’t been able to share with anyone since their hero lives began. They both omitted details to keep their identities safe, so a lot of the stories were more vague and names were never mentioned. They may be heroic partners now, but they weren’t about to reveal who they were, both spiders agreed that it would be best if their identities were kept a secret even from one another. 

“I should probably go home soon.” The Blue Spider stood up as the sun was starting to go down. Jeremy’s dad would wonder where he was if he wasn’t home for dinner, and he was already suspicious enough as it was.

“Wait.” Red Widow’s words stopped The Blue Spider from swinging away. “We should have a way to reach other, in case there’s trouble and one of us needs back up or something.” 

“What do you suggest, a spider signal?” The Blue Spider quipped sarcastically.

“No, but that would be cool. I was thinking we could exchange numbers or something?”

“Absolutely not.” The words came out a lot harsher than Jeremy had intended. “I’m sorry but it’s just too risky, I mean what if we know each other in real life?”

“I doubt it but you do have a point.” Michael hummed in thought. “What about getting burner phones? That way it’s a completely different number, plus their pretty cheap.”

“Won’t that make us look like drug dealers?” 

“Just don’t use it in front of other people and you’ll be fine.” Red Widow huffed. “Do you have a better idea?”

“Well…” Jeremy sighed. “No. I was thinking long range walkie talkies but I doubt they’d cover enough range to really work plus it’d be pretty obvious to find out our identities if we have matching walkie talkies.”

“So drug dealer phones it is then! I might know someone that can make us some less shady communicators but in case I’m wrong we should get the burner phones anyway. We can meet up here tomorrow to exchange numbers.”

“Alright sounds good, is five o’clock good for you?” 

“Works for me.”

“Great see you then!” With that The Blue Spider shot out a web and swung away. Red Widow watched him with a smile, this was the start of something great, he could just feel it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man I’m sorry I took so long to update! I just hadn’t been feel that inspired lately, I already explained this in the comments but I wanted to apologize again because hot damn I took over a month. I’m hoping to update at the very least once a month but hopefully I’ll get over my writer’s block and update more frequently. Now we’ll be getting more into a plot and some snippy stuff! Originally the crocodile was just going to be a mutant but I suddenly made him a robot because I think it’ll work better with where I, going with story? Or not we’ll just have to see.
> 
> Thank you all again for all the kind words and kudos on this, it really does help motivate me!

**Author's Note:**

> Spider Jeremy fic: 
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/14493606/chapters/33481842
> 
> Spider Michael art: 
> 
> https://www.instagram.com/p/BoPeqw-ng52/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=zmn4qsp3ocrg


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